Class 




Book._<_. 



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COfSRIGUT UEPtfSlfc 



THE MASTERWHEEL 



OTHER WORKS 

BY DR. LOFTON 

Character Sketches; or, The Blackboard Mirror. 454 
pages, with illustrations by the author. Cloth, Half Rus- 
sia, and Morocco. 

Harp of Life: Its Harmonies and Discords. 46} pages, 
with illustrations by the author. Cloth, Half Russia, and 
Morocco. 






J &*<* m % i 







GEORGE A. LOFTON, A.M., D.D., LLD, 



THE 

MASTERWHEEL 

OK 

THE POWER OF LOVE 



BEING A DISCUSSION OF THAT PASSION BY WHICH GOD 
TRANSMITS THE MOVING FORCE OF HIS BEING TO THE 
UNIVERSE, THROUGH WHOSE HIGHEST DEVELOP- 
MENT MAN BECOMES LIKE UNTO DEITY, 
AND WITHOUT WHICH HE WOULD CEASE 
TO BE IN HIS MAKER'S IMAGE 



>* BY 

GEORGE A. LOFTON, A.M., D.D., LL.D. 



v- 



Author of "Character Sketches," "The Harp of Life" "So: The Gospel in a 

Monosyllable, Etc:'' 



With Illustrations by the Author 



nashville, tenn. 

The Southwestern Company 

macon, ga. topeka, kan. waco, tex. 



TfiwiflY of ObNGRESsl 

Two Cooles Received j 

JUN 17 190f 

Oepynsrht Entry 

OUSytf. XXc„ No, 

/J 30 f^. 

COPY B. 

,., i i n —— | 






Copyright, 1906, 

BY 

George Augustus Lofton 

All Rights Reserved 




FOREWORD 



No other age in all history has been ruled more 
by love than this. The governing spirit of the time, 
happily be it said, is not a sudden outburst of senti- 
mentalism, a craze for the emotional, nor a renaissance 
of the romantic. It is a healthy, normal growth, as is 
evidenced by the spread of evangelism and the better- 
ment of the world. In the abuse and perversion of our 
freedom and enlightenment, however, love may fall a 
victim to the material and commercial tendencies of the 
era, and be prostituted to loose or false notions of justice, 
righteousness, and charity. There has not been a mo- 
ment in all the past more important than the present to 
emphasize that "greatest of these," and this book has 
been written for such a purpose. We must agree that it 
is proper to cultivate the intellect. If so, why not the 
affections ? We develop the head, why not the heart ? 

The author has covered almost every phase of life 
and relationship. He has utilized all means to find the 
wants of human nature, and, as a master-workman, has 
wrought a key to open wide the portals of every heart to 
the warmth and light of love. He has demonstrated 
that there is no form or connection of human existence 
that does not come within the reach of this all-controlling 
passion; and he has shown that without it, or with it 
perverted, all other passions or emotions are powerless 
to give complete happiness to the human race. 

(7) 



8 Foreword 

Dr. Lofton, through his years of ministry, has had 
his finger on the pulse of humanity. He knows the signs 
and symptoms of man's soul-sickness as well as the 
skilled physician knows the ills of the body. Long ago 
he contemplated such a work as The Masterwheel, 
dealing with the universality of love as a fundamental 
law of life, its power in moving men, and its key-position 
in the mechanism of God's creation and man's achieve- 
ment. The opportunity to put his meditations into such 
tangible form and shape as to benefit his fellows did not 
come until recently, however, and the result of that op- 
portunity is this book. Dr. Lofton's deep wisdom, his 
ripe scholarship, and his heart-inclination to those 
around him never showed to better advantage than in its 
pages. The success of "Character Sketches" was 
founded on its wonderful mirroring of life. "Harp of 
Life" followed pretty much the same path as its pred- 
ecessor. But The Masterwheel is different. While 
it shows the same keen knowledge of men and women 
and has the same adherence to the doctrine of common- 
sense, yet it reveals deeper thought, a clearer view, and 
a more philosophic mind than either of the other books. 
Unquestionably it is the author's best work. 

The illustrations are by the author, and, save a few 
adapted in a way to make them applicable to the sub- 
ject, are original in design and execution. In the pro- 
duction of these pictures the author sets up no claim to 
the skill of the artist. 




INTRODUCTION 

BY DR. IRA LANDRITH, REGENT OF BELMONT COLLEGE. 

All that is best — and worst — in our lives is propelled 
by love. Under its impulse men delight to live, or dare 
to die. Truly it is the masterwheel that governs the 
mechanism of the universe. Impelled by love, the noblest 
have surrendered to the ignoblest, and the vilest have be- 
come honorable. Nothing has been too good and nothing 
too bad for men and women to undertake at love's be- 
hest. At once the greatest joy and blessing, love often is 
the greatest peril and source of danger in our lives. If 
there were no counterfeits in this coin of the heart, there 
would be no danger in its circulation. But like many an- 
other good and perfect gift this one often has been con- 
taminated, imitated, prostituted. 

The felon and the saint bear similar testimony: "I am 
what I am because I love." The wise and the foolish, 
the true and the false, the great and the small, the vir- 
tuous and the vile, the good and the bad, are all alike 
made so by love. Heaven receives its population from 
.the arms of holy love, and hell would be empty but for 
base devotion. 

"God is love," and yet for love men have been dishon- 
ored, become murderers, descended to every grade of 
villainy; women have followed them downward, and, 
sometimes, alas ! have gone down before them. "God so 
loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son," 

(9) 



10 Introduction 

and yet for their loves human beings have given up the 
very thing for which God out of his love gave his Son, 
"everlasting life/' 

The author of this volume, therefore, has undertaken 
a task which is in the nature of putting first things first. 
He is beginning at the beginning of all good and of every 
evil. He would propose the purifying of the stream of 
life at the very source of all right and wrong. He knows 
that if the heart is right the hand will not be wrong. 
It is the philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount, the 
deep significance of "As a man thinketh in his heart, 
so is he/' Our author takes men and women and chil- 
dren where he finds them, and attempts to tell them 
where they ought to be, and what, and why. His is 
at once a task most blessed and tremendous. Despite 
his difficulties, he is always comprehensive and always 
faithful, as is shown by his analysis of love into so many 
kinds, and his discussion of fully fifty manifestations of 
affection. 

If the author of these pages had written alone of do- 
mestic love in these days of wholesome revival of inter- 
est in the home, thousands would have studied what he 
had to say. In much more than a sentimental way both 
churchmanship and statesmanship are busy with this 
problem. Eighty per cent of the crime in our larger 
cities is attributed to men and women who have had 
practically no home life. The home, still more nearly 
than any other institution, reaches our life, reaches it 
earlier, and for the first twenty years at least more 
constantly than does the Church or the school or any 
other agency for character-making. It is of the suprem- 
est importance, therefore, that the home be whole- 
some, its loves pure and abundant, and that nothing be 



Introduction 11 

allowed to continue to imperil the fireside as gravely as 
many things now do, among them the haste with which 
homes are made, the unhomelike places in which fam- 
ilies live, the maudlin sentiment that all women ought 
to be wage-earners, and the suicidal strenuousness of our 
too busy lives. Our author has recognized and attacked 
not only these but other hazards of the home; and he 
has treated the subject in at least fifteen ways directly; 
indirectly its discussion appears on almost every page, 
for he has realized that when all other loves are right 
domestic love cannot be wrong. 

If our author had been content to discuss for us only 
what in general he has termed "Religious Love," devo- 
tion to the highest things of the spirit, he would have 
deserved the wide reading he is going to receive; for, 
although books on this theme are nearly numberless, 
the last word has not been written, and no writer has 
found the last — nor the best, probably — of the effective 
ways of presenting the cardinal truth that if we love 
God we are bound to love our neighbor. "If ye love 
me, ye will keep my commandments." Fourteen phases 
of this vital "law of life" are considered in this volume. 

Had our author spent his entire strength upon such 
natural love as that which normal men have for life and 
liberty, country and truth, we should be eager for the 
contribution he might make to the literature of this 
•philosophy of life. But he has shown us this truth from 
as many as fifteen angles of vision. 

If our author had done no more in this book than lift 
a fiery danger-signal as a warning to those who are 
menaced by the deadly perils of licentious love, he should 
have the gratitude of all who know anything about this 
most prolific and hideous mother of the blackest vices 



12 Introduction 

that people perdition. But he has not stopped with a 
candid and clean calling of things by their right names 
— he has shown us also how hateful are all kindred and 
contributing sins. 

Does our author exhaust these subjects? He does 
not, he has not even tried, because he would attempt no 
impossible task. All the poets have failed, and all the 
philosophers have had to write "To be continued" after 
their last words on love. In one way or another every 
sage in every age has spent his life in a vain effort to 
know the whole truth about this deepest of all wisdom, 
and then has passed into the presence of the only Being 
in all the universe who, because it is His name and char- 
acter, could accurately answer the question, the first 
and last question of every man who is capable of think- 
ing, "What is love?" But our author has done what is 
better than to vainly strive to exhaust this subject, he 
has given us the ripest results of his whole life's study 
of what the right quality and. degree of love will do for 
us and what the wrong kind is certain to do against us ; 
and, this great task completed, he has told us how to 
obtain the wholesome and abstain from the hurtful 
loves that make their appeal to us. This done, the read- 
er alone is responsible if his is not the stalwart heroism 
to say, with the decisiveness and self-mastery of true 
success, 

When I see a thing is true, 

I'll go to work and put it through. 

Ira Landrith. 



CONTENTS 

Part I. 

DOMESTIC LOVE. page 

Love : What Is It ? 18 

Sweetheart Love 26 

Conjugal Love 36 

Husband's Love 46 

Wife's Love 56 

Father's Love 66 

Mother's Love j6 

Love for Children 86 

Filial Love 94 

Love of Brothers and Sisters 104 

Love of Home 114 

Love of Kinsfolk 124 

Love of Master and Servants 134 

Love of Animals 146 

Love of Agriculture 158 

Part II. 

RELIGIOUS LOVE. 

Love of the Bible 168 

Love of Christ 178 

Love of Souls 186 

Love of the Church 194 

Love of the Brethren 200 

Love of Friends 206 

Love of Enemies 212 

(•3) 



14 The Masterwheel 

PAGE 

Love of the Afflicted 220 

Love of the Poor 228 

Love of the Criminal 236 

Love the Law of Life 246 

Part III. 

NATURAL LOVE. 

Love of Life 256 

Love of Liberty 264 

Love of Country 272 

Love of War 282 

Love of Truth 292 

Love of Beauty 302 

Love of the Good 314 

Love of Learning 324 

Love of Eloquence 332 

Love of Fame 340 

Love of Music 348 

Love of Poetry 360 

Love of Art 370 

Love of Nature 378 

Love of Flowers 390 

Part IV. 

VICIOUS LOVE. 

Love of Self 400 

Love of Pleasure 406 

Love of the World 414 

Love of Money 422 

Love of Humbuggery 430 

Love of Gambling 440 

Love of Drink 448 

Licentious Love 456 

Love of Scandal 470 

B 



ItCVe is our highest -word and the synonym of God. — Emerson, 

(19 



PART I. 

DOMESTIC LOVE 



* Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 

Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home; 

A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there, 

Which, seek through the -world, is ne'er met with elsewhere. 

Home, home, sweet, sweet home; 

There's no place like home, O there's no place like home. 

— -John Howard Payne. 

3 <i7) 



LOVE: WHAT IS IT? 




T will not suffice to deal simply in diction- 
ary terms in discussing this subject. The 
meaning of love is far beyond the grasp 
of lexicography or the science of lan- 
guage. To be sure, love is an affection of the heart ex- 
cited by that which delights or that which commands 
admiration, but this severely plain definition does not 
begin to describe the great, mysterious passion that sets 
the heart on fire, bewilders the brain, and so often con- 
sumes the whole being of the one who loves. 

The first three pictures in this book illustrate in con- 
crete form the popular idea of love. The first repre- 
sents it as ''The Misery of One" — the man loves, but 
the woman does not; Cupid, the god of love, is plying 
his art upon the woman, seeking to turn her heart to 
the man who loves her. The second represents love as 
"The Bliss of Two" — the same two ; Cupid, having suc- 
ceeded in his work, is standing off in joyful triumph over 
the result. The third represents love as "The Torment 
of Three," another man having divided the affections 
of the woman and plunged all three into the torture of 
conflicting emotions, while Cupid, having flung away 
his bow and arrows, gives up the job and views it with 
grief and despair. 

The apostle John, the loving disciple, grasped the 

(18) 




Love — What is it ? 



Love: What Is It? 21 

conception of love's infinitude when he said: "God is 
love." Tis true indeed that God is love, and hence the 
spiritual atmosphere of the universe is love, filling all 
space, and comprehending the essence of all creation; 
the light of the stars, the verdure of the woods, the 
beauty and fragrance of the flowers, the warmth and 
glow of the sun, the music of the spheres, the smiles 
and voices of nature, the thrill and throb of universal 
life, joy, and happiness, and even the glory and ecstasy 
of heaven itself. 

It would require a power of vision such as is given 
by the telescope in Lick Observatory, which compasses 
huge Jupiter, measures the bands of Orion, brings down 
far-off Neptune, gathers the multitudinous stars, and 
sweeps over the nebulous fields of the Milky Way, to 
give a glimpse of the stupendous proportions of love, 
the definition of God, and the essence of his created 
universe. We see it in the harmony and sport of the 
ten thousand animalcules that "live and move and have 
their being" in a drop of water — a little word of peace 
and joy unto themselves. We discover it in the affec- 
tion, sympathy, and order of insect life. We behold it 
in the instinct and relationship of the animal creation. 
It swims in the ocean, flies in the air, and walks upon 
the earth, in every form and fashion of vital existence. 
In man it reaches its highest exemplification. 

There is a sort of scientific analysis of love which 
makes it consist in an approbation of and inclination 
toward an object that appears to us good, as follows: 

i. Esteem, arising from the mere consideration of 
some excellency in an object. 

2. Benevolence, which is an inclination to seek the 
welfare and happiness of any person or thing. 

3. Complacence, which arises from the consideration 



22 The Masterwheel 

of an object agreeable to us and intended to afford us 
pleasure. 

4. Compassion, arising from the spirit of mercy, 
which seeks to redeem us from sin and save us from 
misery. "Pity is akin to love/' 

5. Gratitude, arising from a sense of indebtedness to 
others for kindness and favors bestowed. 

We might add to this analysis, but I shall leave it to 
the philosopher and the theologian to resolve love into 
all its elements and properties, for the gratification of 
the scientific or religious taste, according to the logic 
of love. Like all other subjects, it is susceptible of 
scientific definition and statement; but I would rather 
look at the thing itself, in its synthetic and concrete 
form. What is it? How does it look? How does it 
feel ? What does it do ? 

Love is a dynamic force of high activity, and some- 
times is accompanied by great explosive energy. It is 
the great revolutionary power that changes the order 
of things for the better. Men may think, propose, and 
plan until the end of time and yet accomplish little un- 
less love impels their actions or projects the desired re- 
sults. Neither cold reason nor clear judgment, aided 
by all the self-determination and ambition of which man 
might be possessed, ever accomplished anything truly 
great or truly good until fired and enthused and quick- 
ened by the spark and spirit and vitality of love. Fear 
and necessity are often tremendous motives to action 
and achievement, but without love they lose their force 
in the face of difficulties and continued opposition. The 
fear of God and the knowledge of the need of redemp- 
tion from sin are the beginning of wisdom in religion, 
but love is the middle, the end, and the life of it. There 
may be loveless marriages, loveless professions, love- 



Love: What Is It? 23 

less ambitions, loveless businesses, and loveless lives; 
but they are heartless, aimless, profitless, unsuccessful. 

As a dynamic force, this mighty passion has made 
the world what it is — good and great. The love of 
money makes the millionaire; the love of fame makes 
the hero ; the love of power, the ruler ; the love of learn- 
ing, the scholar; the love of country, the patriot and 
the great nation; the love of Christ makes the Chris- 
tian and a great Christianity. Ideas, theories, systems, 
schemes, efforts, energy, and volition die with their 
birth, if the dynamics of some sort of love is not under 
or within them. Hate, envy, and jealousy have much 
to do with the thought and actions of men ; but, with all 
the gigantic powers of mind and heart they may employ, 
they are only destructive, and leave on the world no per- 
manent impress. Selfishness and ambition have de- 
signed and accomplished vast results in many spheres 
of human life; but nothing save true love ever has left 
to the ages anything worth having. 

Again, love is electro-magnetic. Every heart is a 
storage battery which holds, with tremendous voltage, 
this mysterious power. Some possess it in greater 
measure than others, but all have it. According to its 
degree of power, it is manifest in the touch of a loving 
hand, the glance of a loving eye, the glow of a loving 
smile, the thrill of a loving life, the throb of a loving 
heart; and who can resist or fail to feel its power? 
It molds the life and character of a child; it subdues 
and conquers the wild animal; it rouses the young 
lover into ecstasy; it draws the charmed circle around 
the family fireside; it links two hearts with the bonds 
of lasting friendship; it binds society together with the 
chain of confidence and fraternity; it connects the sun- 
dered poles of peace by its universal current of sympa- 



24 The Masterwheel 

thy; it restores the equilibrium of elements jarred by the 
convulsions and revolutions which sometimes break up 
the relations of society — ever bringing order out of con- 
fusion, purity out of corruption, and peace and calm out 
of the war and storm attendant upon human change 
and progress. 

Love is often thunder and lightning! "Whom the 
Lord loveth he chasteneth !" The father who spares 
the rod spoils the child; it is love that applies the rod 
when necessary, although the child usually does not 
think this. It is love that opens the ulcer, to relieve it 
of its corruption ; cuts off the limb, lest it kill the body ; 
prunes the vine, that it bear more fruit ; raises the tem- 
pest to purify the atmosphere. It is a dove in gentle- 
ness and a lamb in meekness ; but it has the courage of 
a lion in duty, or distress, or conflict. Woe to the ele- 
ments of wrong and error when they get in the path of 
revolutionizing and conquering love! Love is neither 
coward nor weakling, and it will go into the flames for 
its darling, or burn at the stake for its principle, or 
sound the tocsin of war for its honor and its rights. 

Love is light. It clothes the sun with its ineffable 
glory, robes the moon in her pale splendor, and puts the 
twinkle in all the stars ; and wherever the light of truth 
and righteousness, virtue and honor, goodness and 
beauty, shines, love is the substance of the illumination. 
Take away love, and there would be no moral light in 
the world. There could be genius and intellect, beauty 
and symmetry, form and fashion, polish of culture and 
purity of life ; but without love all would be as the glow 
of crystal or the glitter of ice. 

Well has Drummond called it "the greatest thing in 
the world." Shakespeare truly has written, 

There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned; 



Love: What Is It? 25 

and I might add, so, too, of the love that can be de- 
fined. 

Perhaps the best way to understand the meaning of 
love, especially within the pale of Christianity, is to look 
at its achievements. Christ is the incarnation and im- 
personation of love divine, and true Christianity its 
highest illustration. Love is the very genius of Chris- 
tianity. It houses the poor, feeds the hungry, shields 
the widow and orphan, supports the aged, educates the 
ignorant, comforts the sorrowing, gives refuge to the 
fallen, and in a thousand ways organizes and sustains 
the charities which are the pride and glory of our civili- 
zation and of that religion revealed by the Master — the 
Prince of Peace and the Embodiment of Love. Herein 
we behold the definition of "infinite love, far too big 
for words." 

As one has quaintly written: 

Could I with ink the ocean fill, 

Were the whole earth of parchment made, 
Were every blade of grass a quill, 

And every man a scribe by trade — 
To write the love of God above 

Would drain the ocean dry; 
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, 

Though spread from sky to sky. 



SWEETHEART LOVE 




E have before us here an Italian shepherd and 
shepherdess — the most passionate of lovers — 
in the sweet converse of young affection — he 
a-wooing and she a-listening. He has left his 
flock on the other side of the river to take care of itself, 
and tied his boat to the shore ; she sits pensive and for- 
getful of her own flock, while he pours with eloquence 
the story of his devotion into her ready ear. 

Fundamental to every form of love in nature is love 
between the sexes. "Love, courtship, and marriage" is 
the usual way of putting it. In other words, we might 
call it "sweetheart love," which every man and woman 
who have possessed the passion understand, but may not 
be able to define. It began with Adam and Eve in the 
Garden of Eden, and after the love of God this was 
the first form of love known to the world. I imag- 
ine that they were the most handsome, most lovable and 
loving couple that ever lived. They were made ex- 
pressly for each other, fashioned in all the beauty and 
perfection of physical manhood and womanhood, with- 
out any defects whatsoever until their fall, simply revel- 
ing in the purity and holiness of their affectional nature. 
Until Eve came Adam was alone in the beautiful gar- 
den, the monarch of all he surveyed, with no compan- 
ionship except the animals and other forms of nature 
with which he communed. 'Tis a fact, he saw 
(26) 




Sweetheart Love. 



Sweetheart Love 29 

and talked, at times, with God; but he must have felt 
the loneliness of his individuality — without a likeness 
or counterpart. God might have made another man to 
keep him company, but the relation of two men in per- 
petual companionship, however sweet, would never be 
satisfactory, and I will venture to say that Adam was 
instinctively longing for a helpmeet as the counterpart 
and complement of his half-made being. He saw that 
the birds, the fishes, and the animals had mates; and 
if he did not fully know and realize what he lacked in 
being and happiness, God knew what was best for him 
and the world, and soon supplied the deficiency. 

I wonder how Adam felt when he woke from that 
deep sleep with a rib gone, finding it transformed into 
the most beautiful and loving woman, standing before 
him. He needed, perhaps, no introduction. The sit- 
uation was not at all embarrassing, and was readily 
understood. Adam naturally saw what his soul was 
looking for; and Eve, though just originated and ar- 
rived upon the scene, did not have to be told what she 
was for. Love talked to love at first sight, as often 
since; and while the conversation was brief, the pur- 
pose of the hour and the occasion was as transparent 
as glass. They met, they kissed, they embraced — I 
imagine — and God united in the holy bonds of matri- 
mony the first created pair. That was the happiest 
day in Adam's life, and how they spent their honey- 
moon, in the most felicitous delight in each other's pres- 
ence and companionship, none but God could tell. It 
lasted, doubtless in all the perfection of unity, love, and 
joy, until the Devil got into the garden and sin entered 
the hearts of the innocent pair. From that time forth 
shame and sorrow flung their black pall over the marital 
felicity of the most blessed union that ever characterized 
two hearts and lives, and brought upon us all our woe. 



30 The Masterwheel 

Perhaps when beautiful Eden was lost, and Adam 
and Eve had to begin work for a living, they loved 
each other more rationally than before. Two sweet 
children were born to them, and though when grown 
up one killed the other that did not stop the business. 
Even the murderer got married. Nothing can stop 
love, courtship, and marriage. We are so born, and 
men and women will love and marry, even if confronted 
with starvation. I sometimes marry couples without 
any visible means of support; and the only answer to 
the inquiry as to the propriety of such a course is that 
they love each other, and can't help it. Some marry 
almost in rags, and afterwards live in poverty, with a 
house full of children; but many of the sublimest in- 
stances of love and devotion in the marriage relation 
are seen amid such surroundings. This sweetheart 
love, which results in the conjugal relation and life, is 
no respecter of persons or circumstances ; and with rich 
or poor, high or low, wise or ignorant, good or bad, from 
the hovel to the palace, and from the king to the peasant, 
Cupid finds constant mischief or good to do. 

The love of which we now speak is the most un- 
philosophic of all the sacred passion. There are few 
indeed who logically look before they leap into the vor- 
tex of marital relations; and even when they do, they 
are sometimes as much mistaken as those who blindly 
toy with Cupid's arrows. Love seldom stops for sober 
reflection. Some who love and court for years are 
woefully deceived, and some who never stop to think of 
life or character are happily mated. Some of the 
purest and noblest people in the world are badly 
matched, or incapable of great and steadfast devotion; 
while some of the vilest and meanest are happily mated 
and unalterably constant in their affection. All rules 
have their exceptions; nevertheless the rule holds good 



Sweetheart Love 31 

in general that affinity, congeniality, and equality are 
essential to true and permanent love in married life. 

There are men and women who are the victims of 
passion without thought, or who go from one object of 
attraction to another with such changeful ease that 
the last is always the best. Such people want the ballast 
of solid and permanent virtue essential to true and 
lasting love. Beware of the man and the woman who 
can love one person as well as another, and are ever 
infatuated with the last they meet. It will be so when 
married. True and changeless love is virtue itself, the 
foundation of character; and even when deceived or 
disappointed, it is loath to surrender the unworthy ob- 
ject of affection. In thousands of instances true love, 
especially in woman, still clings to the vilest object. 
The wonder and mystery of love is that, under such 
conditions, it can maintain its integrity and purity. 
Perhaps this fact led Shakespeare to say : 

Love is not love 

Which alters when it alteration finds. 

True love is both a passion and a principle. Some 
people have the passion in greater degree than the prin- 
ciple; in others the principle predominates over the 
passion. The passion involves the affectional nature; 
the principle involves the intellectual and moral nature. 
Love that constitutes a steady and mighty flame in the 
heart and life is not only emotional and devoted, but is 
thoughtful and purposeful. It stands by its object with 
tenderest consideration and unshaken integrity. When 
the passion and the principle involved in love are well- 
balanced, happiness, harmony, and peace attend and 
bless the life and relationship of the lovers. When pas- 
sion predominates over principle, love is often hot and 
heady, and its course may not always run smooth ; when 



32 The Masterwheel 

principle predominates over passion, the course may be 
smooth, but the atmosphere is cooler. Occasionally it 
is all principle and no passion; and while true to each 
other, and fast in their relation, such lovers are like the 
snow that crowns the mountain's top. They walk and 
talk together more like philosophers than sweethearts, 
and when married they will be true as steel, and nearly 
as cold. With such, "love is a science rather than a 
sentiment ;" and in such love there may be, at least, the 
strongest and most enduring friendship. 

There may be the passion without the principle; but 
such love seldom or never has the foundation of virtue, 
and, if it is not base, it is often mad. It is here that 
lust or blind infatuation enters as the chief element of 
affection — volatile and capricious because without es- 
teem, and dangerous and deadly because without either 
honor or judgment. Such love is always wild and un- 
governable in pursuit, and usually dies by possession. 
The more it loves, the readier it is to hate its object 
when passion is sated. It is amazing to see often how 
the silly or the base can love each other unto death to- 
day, and despise each other to-morrow. Not infre- 
quently we hear of the maddened fool, who, in jealousy 
or disappointment, slays mistress or lover, and then 
blows out his or her own brains. The cause of such an 
end lies only in that inordinate and impure form of love 
which is all of passion and none of principle. Beware 
of the lover who is seeking only for a woman, not a wife ; 
for a man, not a husband. Ovid trenchantly says: "Ex- 
cessive love in loathing ever ends." 

There is a difference between the love of man and 
woman. Lamartine says, "To love in order to be loved 
in return is man, but to love for the sake of pure loving 
is the characteristic of an angel;" and this is true of 
woman. She is more confiding, and often risks every- 



Sweetheart Love 33 

thing upon faith in her lover. "The maid that loves," 
says Young, "goes out to sea upon a shattered plank, 
and puts her trust in miracles for safety." Byron says: 

Man's love is of man's life a thing apart; 
Tis woman's whole existence. 

One has said, "Love with man is not so much a senti- 
ment as an idea;" and it has often proved true that the 
man who loved a woman for her beauty or wealth 
ceased to love when she lost it— a thing so seldom true 
of woman. Love is the very life of woman — her might, 
her talismanic power over man — without apparent pre- 
cision of rule or policy, and it is guided in her largely 
by instinct and intuition ; man is more mechanical and 
mathematical in love. It has been said that "Man loves 
little and often, woman much and rarely;" and she not 
only loves more than man, but better than man. Her 
"love, like the lichens upon a rock, will still grow when 
charity can find no soil in which to nurture itself;" for 
"love is the study and business of her life." A woman 
may be false and lose her virtue, and so fall far below 
man in moral turpitude; man may likewise fall, but he 
can never descend so low, because in the atmosphere of 
affectional purity he has never soared so high. 

Love can grow. At first, it may be but the simple 
chrysalis that later bursts into the beautiful butterfly. 
This butterfly state should develop into the solid growth 
of well-regulated passion and principle, learning to es- 
teem and adore the object of devotion and to utilize and 
make efficacious all the elements of life and happiness. 
It would be a good thing if lovers could pause to study 
each other, in order to discover and appreciate the qual- 
ities which constitute their manhood and womanhood, 
before they run into husbandhood and wifehood; and 
not wait to learn these when it is too late. The butter- 
3 



34 The Masterwheel 

fly state ought to end before the matrimonial state be- 
gins. 

O what a thing is this young love that burns for each 
other in the bosom of man and woman ! Who has not 
felt its holy thrill and ecstasy? True, 

Tis better to have loved and lost 
Than never to have loved at all ; 

and to have loved and won is the crown of earthly hap- 
piness. 

Of all the loves the human heart is capable of feeling 
this sweetheart love is the one we hear most about, for 
in song and story it has been the moving theme of count- 
less poets and romancers ever since the birth of the lit- 
erary art. More than half of the literature of the world 
has to do with this phase of the divine passion, and it 
has given existence to some of the most lovely and ex- 
alted characters the mind of man has imagined. Men 
and women delight to read these fictions of love, women 
more especially ; and men of letters long since found out 
that 

All the world loves a lover 

and profited thereby. 

While many of the books thus written are good and 
some of them are truly great, a vast number are simply 
base trash, distorting the life, the affection, and the 
character they seek to picture, besides ruining the read- 
er's taste for the more useful and more elevating works 
of better types and the productions of better minds. 
One of the most distressing spectacles of our time is the 
almost insane fever with which certain classes of society 
greedily devour the latest love-story novel, hanging ex- 
pectant upon its ending and the destiny of the hero or 
heroine as though they were a dear and near relative 






Sweetheart Love 35 

or the fate of empires trembled upon their wedding or 
parting. To how much better advantage might the 
hours and dollars spent thus be utilized in reading God's 
word and preparing the mind for aiding in the spread of 
God's kingdom. 

Ah, this sweetheart love ! How often and often in 
later life do we turn back to it as a tender memor}^ and 
go over our courtship days, recollecting each incident, 
each joy, each pang, each milestone on the way of our 
love, no matter whether it led to the altar, to the grave, 
or to the bitterness of blighted or misplaced affection. 
Is there any man or woman in the evening of life who 
does not often steal away from time a quiet hour to 
ponder over the bittersweet past, to conjure up the old 
days, to bring to mind how some loved face appeared in 
those delicious times, to remember the first kiss and to 
turn over all the little incidents, one by one, of the long 
past love or the love that still exists, truer and deeper 
and stronger before the lapse of years ? If such persons 
exist, think what a sad and lonely old age theirs must 
be. And think, too, of the sweethearts of three-score- 
and-ten going back hand in hand to the days when they 
were sweethearts of one-and-twenty. If love was a 
primrose path for them then, what a veritable garden of 
beautiful flowers it must be when life's journey is almost 
done. 

Often, like echoes from a distance falling, 
Uncertain, changeful, sadly sweet and low, 
Strange voices murmur, to our hearts recalling 
The days and hopes and dreams of Long Ago. 



CONJUGAL LOVE 




E come now to love in married life, supposing 
Cupid to have effected his purpose for weal 
or woe. The brightest and happiest scene 
upon earth is a splendid man and a lovely 
woman before the marriage altar — with the bridal robes 
of spotless white and a bunch of roses on the one hand, 
and the appropriate and unwrinkled outfit of black on 
the other. Graceful, modest womanhood links itself 
with noble and lofty manhood, taking each other by the 
right hand with a pledge of lifelong love and obligation, 
and passing out into the world of trial and duty under 
solemn sanction of nuptial union. This is the most 
impressive and momentous occasion in the life of two 
lovers. What hopes and fears, what promises and un- 
certainties, what visions and unrevealed prospects, hang 
on that hour! Buoyant and oblivious of the future, 
the young couple step gladly and gayly into the bark 
of matrimony that floats in the placid bay, and sail out 
toward life's untried and stormy deep. Mothers and 
fathers and friends perhaps have pointed out the dan- 
gers of the voyage all boundless and unseen before them, 
with its calms and tempests ; but experience speaks in 
vain until that friendly monitor becomes our intimate 
personal acquaintance. 

Sail out, gay, hopeful ones, and try the ocean for 
yourselves, as your mothers and fathers tried it before 
(36) 




t^rr-. ■ ■ ;. . . .., i Nu .i. ... , . . . ,,., ■..■?'■.', - I .", ' - J,.-!" ! : 1 ■■■■ . 





> 
O 



^^sJ 



*5f^ 





- -I 

o 

mm O 



9H 



Conjugal Love 39 

you. If your craft is strong, your sails properly set, 
your helm fixed, your hands steady, and your courage 
and faith true, there is but one storm that can wreck 
your ship — the storm of death; and that will part you 
only till you meet where the sea is all calm and where 
the shadow of death can never fall. You may be tossed 
about by afflictions and misfortunes, by temptations and 
trials, by privations and bereavements ; but if true love 
ever bound your hearts together and virtue and honor 
clasped your hands at the sacred altar, there is no 
tempest upon the troubled deep of life that can wreck 
your vessel or keep you from the port of peace. 

Every true marriage is made in heaven ; and the God 
of the universe, "who rides upon the storm and plants 
his footsteps in the sea," infallibly guides every right 
relationship and purpose in marriage to the righteous 
end of this holy institution. If we start right, we are 
not likely to go amiss, and the end of such a beginning 
shall be according to the divine plan and purpose. 

God instituted marriage as the first and among the 
holiest and most binding of all his ordinances. He 
united the first created pair with his own hand. The 
Master, at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, ratified the 
Father's holy institution. The Holy Spirit, through 
the inspiration of the apostles, declared it honorable 
among men. Hence it emanated directly from supreme 
authority, and can never pass away nor, in the muta- 
tions of society, undergo change. Having preceded all 
other social and civil compacts, it must ever remain the 
same and immutable, the law of goodness, the founda- 
tion of all true government, of social order and domestic 
felicity. Any interference with the institution of mar- 
riage is a vital and fundamental subversion of the di- 
vine economy, and threatens the welfare of human so- 
ciety. Keep this institution orderly and sacred ; then all 



40 The Masterwheel 



other institutions have a substantial and immovable 
foundation for their maintenance and perpetuity. It 
is the fountain-head of all moral, social, and national 
life; and no nation or community can live and flourish 
in the prostitution of this domestic relation. Corrupt 
and weaken the family tie, and you break the bonds 
which bind the human race in every essential relation. 
All nations which have not kept the sacred fire burning 
upon the hymeneal altar are dead or dying. 

God ordained marriage between two only — one man 
and one woman — and he ordained that they both should 
forsake father and mother and all else and cling to 
each other. All forms of bigamy or polygamy per- 
mitted or tolerated between the origin of the marriage 
institution and the coming of Christ were contrary to 
the letter and spirit of the first institution; and Christ 
and Christianity returned wholly to the original law of 
one husband and one wife. A man may have two 
women, but he cannot have two wives; a woman may 
have two men, but she cannot have two husbands. Ac- 
cording to wedding mathematics there can be one out 
of two, but not out of three or a dozen. Every form 
of polygamy is abhorrent to the marriage state, and 
every form of unfaithfulness to it is treason of the 
deepest dye. No man can love two or more women 
as wives; much less can one woman love two or more 
men as husbands. There is something in the nature of 
marital love which renders it impossible of division; 
and you can no more love and serve two wives or two 
husbands than you can two masters or, at the same 
time, love God and Mammon. Only two souls at a 
time can become one in this relation ; and when a man 
has two or more wives, or women, he attempts to divide 
the indivisible, which is impossible. If he loves at all, 
in the true sense, he will love one better than the other 



Conjugal Love 41 

or more than all the rest. So Jacob loved Rachel, and 
did not love Leah or the rest of his wives. A plurality 
of wives makes love and purity of relationship impos- 
sible. It may be said that some of the animals maintain 
a plurality of mates; but these animals have only an 
instinctive sense of relationship but have no self-con- 
scious individuality. They follow simply their beastly 
instinct, according to the peculiar law of their nature; 
and when a man has more than one wife he becomes 
a beast and follows a beastly impulse, and not the law 
of his nature. 

In the marriage relation love is the one great essen- 
tial to a life of unity, happiness, and prosperity. What- 
ever else marriage may be, or whatever else may *be 
secured as the end of marriage, it is not essentially mar- 
riage if it lacks the golden bond of love. It may be 
legally correct, orderly in its deportment, and faithful 
in all its outward obligations; yet if love be wanting, 
it is as much a hollow sham as is religion without love 
to God. Marriage is the beautiful type of the union 
between Christ, the Bridegroom, and the Church, his 
bride; and as he loved the Church and the Church 
loves him, so should husband and wife love each other. 
We may have business, social, political, and other rela- 
tionships, more or less vital, without love; but when 
genuine affection is wanting, the marriage relation, 
which typifies the heavenly, exists only in form or fash- 
ion, not in fact. So strong and essential is this instinct 
with which God has guarded and perpetuated the sacred 
purpose of marriage that not only would no scripturally 
enlightened man claim that marriage is merely a civil or 
social institution, but even among the most benighted 
heathen this divine instinct is inherently recognized. 

But does the absence of love invalidate marriage, ei- 
ther in itself, or in the sight of God, or in the sight of 



42 The Masterwheel 

the law? It does not, so far as it is merely a human 
or civil relation. Husbands are commanded to love 
their wives, and wives to obey their husbands; but 
whether they do or not, the formal validity of the rela- 
tion remains, while the responsibility for love and obe- 
dience is a matter between them and God. Neither does 
God, nor should man, break up government until it gets 
too bad to be endured ; and Christ provides for final sep- 
aration between husband and wife only upon the ground 
of adultery, which is an overt act of infidelity and 
treason to the relation. 

We can have no sympathy with the free love and 
divorce theories which would separate man and wife for 
want of affinity, congeniality, equality, and the like, and 
then seek new relationships in marriage. Lust is usual- 
ly at the bottom of such theories; and whether it is or 
not, they are in violation of God's law, which looks to 
a single relationship in marriage until death or the 
scriptural cause separates. There may be, and are, 
causes of separation without final divorce; but until 
death or adultery intervenes, none can marry again. 
Any other law or theory on the subject tends only to 
weaken the marriage relation and to breed corruption 
and death in social relations. 

The lesson to be learned is carefulness and wisdom 
on the part of those who marry. If we make our bed 
hard, we must lie upon it; and for the good of society 
in general, we must surrender our privilege of another 
marriage when we have made a mistake. Parties who 
marry ought, beforehand, to look into the matter of 
affinity, congeniality, equality, love, and other consid- 
erations essential to a true and happy marital relation. 
Look before you leap, and love before you marry. Wil- 
liam Penn advised wisely when he said: "Never marry 
but for love, but see that thou lovest what is lovely." 



Conjugal Love 43 

If lovers know each other's faults and infirmities before- 
hand, and expect to reform each other through the 
power of love after marriage, let them stick to their job; 
or if they marry without love, in the hope of cultivating 
it, let them keep up the good work until accomplished. 
Holmes says : "It is the most momentous question a 
woman is ever called on to decide: whether the faults 
of the man she loves are beyond remedy and will drag 
her down, or whether she is competent to be his earthly 
redeemer and lift him to her own level." This philos- 
ophy from 'The Autocrat" is sound from start to finish. 
There is no such thing as a life of single blessedness — 
that is, of real blessedness either to the single or to the 
world. It is only the God-ordained relationship of love 
and duty involved in the double blessedness and pur- 
pose of marriage that benefits the world and multiplies 
heaven. Some people cannot marry, there are some 
who ought not to marry; but it is a misfortune rather 
than a blessing to them or to the world. Incapacity, 
indisposition, or disqualification for marriage is an ab- 
normal condition, which implies unnatural, unhappy, 
or useless being. Sometimes health, temperament, un- 
favorable circumstances prevent marriage, or make it 
imperative that some people should not marry. By rea- 
son of physical infirmities, the great Alexander H. Ste- 
phens never married. Such men as Byron and Poe 
should never have taken a wife. The glorious Milton, 
though married twice, was incapable of happy married 
life, by reason of severe irregularity and haughty soli- 
tude. Surely drunkards, adulterers, thieves, liars, and 
the like can only give parentage to broods of vipers, 
through the dreadful doom of heredity. It is a great 
misfortune, both to themselves and to the human race, 
that some have married; but it is a fact that, in the 
purpose and providence of God, the average of married 



44 The Masterwheel 

life is based in love, and fulfills the great purpose and 
mission of blessing, elevating, and prospering the world. 

Love best meets at the point of equality; but it is 
true that a man may love an inferior wife and a 
woman a superior husband, or vice versa. Mar- 
ried people may be dissimilar in personal cast as to 
blonde and brunette, as to size and height, as to tem- 
perament and disposition; but there must be that mys- 
terious something between them called affinity, by which 
they are naturally attracted to each other and happiest 
when together. Where this affinity is, love is the best 
discoverer; and two souls born to love each other come 
together, upon this occult principle, as two pieces of 
metal charged with magnetism. Congeniality is that 
element in the nature of married life which equalizes us 
in similar tastes, education, culture, pleasures, and oth- 
er things in which we readily agree and happily co- 
operate. "Birds of a feather flock together." Chick- 
ens do not mate with ducks nor wrens with jay birds. 
There may be marked differences between husband and 
wife, which love and proper treatment may overcome. 
Petruchio married a shrew, but he tamed her and 
brought her around to a state of congeniality which 
made Kate one of the best of wives. 

The most beautiful sight in the world, perhaps, is 
that of an old married couple, stooped and tottering 
under the weight of years, wrinkled and hoary with the 
honors of long and virtuous life, their hearts younger 
than ever with love, walking arm and arm down the 
checkered pathway of a noble career. Several instances 
I have known in which they never crossed each other 
with an ill word. In one instance, when the aged wife 
died, the old husband asked God that he might go with 
her to heaven, and the next day he died. In another, 
the two having accumulated a fortune after middle life, 



Conjugal Love 45 

the wife died ; then the husband said he had no use for 
it, as ''the old woman" was gone. Around such are 
often many children, trained up by love in the way they 
should go. These are but the fragrant and beautiful 
flowers that wreathe and crown happy married life in 
old age, and fructify into the harvest of joy and glad- 
ness, which only love and fidelity can reap. The grand- 
est lovers in the world are old married lovers, matured 
lovers, lifelong lovers, beyond temptation or mistake; 
who, from the bridal altar through a long and useful 
life, have honored God's first institution, illustrated its 
beauty and integrity, and blessed the world by their ex- 
ample of fidelity. 

The evening comes at last, serene and mild, 
When, after the long and vernal day of life, 
Enamored more, as more remembrance swells 
With many a proof of recollected love, 
Together down they sink in social sleep; 
Together freed, their gentle spirits fly 
To scenes of bliss where love immortal reigns. 



HUSBAND'S LOVE 




HE picture accompanying this chapter pre- 
sents a model husband grown old and still 
as fond of his wife as in the honeymoon and 
heyday of young marital affection. He is 
an illustration of conjugal horticulture in the garden of 
the heart, where the flowers of love have grown up fair 
and sweet, where the plants and shrubs of manly devo- 
tion have developed with luxuriance and beauty all the 
days of married life. The stamp of sturdy devotion is 
upon his settled face as he sits beside his confiding wife 
at eve — placid as the scene before him of glassy lake 
and smiling village beside the immovable mountain — 
and still further expressed in the amiable face of the 
majestic dog that lies at his feet and reflects the char- 
acter of a good and loving master. 

The husband's love! Ah well, let me quote a phone 
conversation I had recently: 

"Say, central, give me number 283, four rings. I 
want to call up old Bowser !" 

"Hello! what's the matter?" Bowser growled back. 

"How are you, Bowser?" 

"Not well." 

"Is your wife at home, and how is she?" 

''She's here, but she's not well." 

"Ah Bowser, I'm writing a chapter on 'Husband's 
(46) 




Husband's Lov 



Husband's Love 49 

Love,' and i should like to have your views on the sub- 
ject. Are you a good and loving husband, and will 
you tell me your observation of the effect of a husband's 
love upon home life ? It would be interesting and prof- 
itable to future generations to have your views and 
experiences upon a theme which embraces so vital a 
problem in domestic economy/' 

"Aw! I should be delighted to tell you all I know 
and feel on the subject; but I am just going out on 
business, and shan't be back till to-morrow. Ask my 
wife." 

Bowser went out, and Mrs. Bowser came to the 
phone. "Mrs. Bowser, would you be so kind as to 
give me your experience and observation of a husband's 
love in all its aspects and effects relating to conjugal 
felicity and home life ? I am writing a chapter on that 
theme." 

"Don't ask me; ask my husband." 

For different reasons, neither one could answer fa- 
vorably without telling a lie, but old Bowser came back 
presently and asked his wife what was wanted of her 
over the telephone, and she told him; then he inquired 
of her what answer she gave, and she told him. Old 
Bowser swelled up as if he would burst ; his face became 
red as blood and white as ashes by turns, the fires of 
fury flashed from his eyes, the thunders of wrath gath- 
ered upon his brow, as he witheringly glanced at that 
poor, sweet little wife that meekly waited for the usual 
storm to break upon her head and heart. It is a won- 
der that, womanlike, she had not portrayed her hus- 
band as the glory of manhood and the prince of spouses, 
just as he expected, but she didn't; and it was for this 
reason that he tore his hair, stamped the floor, foamed 
at the mouth, beat the air, and fulminated his thunder- 
4 



50 The Masterwheel 

bolts of abuse until he was exhausted, then lay down 
on the sofa and panted like a tired-out tiger. All he 
lacked of exterminating his little angel was beating the 
life out of her; but be it said of Old Bowser that he 
never struck his wife, and after the subsidence of his 
volcanic eruptions he was sometimes a very agreeable^ 
indulgent husband. He did not "keep his anger for- 
ever," but no one could foretell when the cloud was 
coming or the storm would vent its fury. It was often 
about the most trivial thing. A button off his coat, a 
slipper misplaced, the breakfast a minute late, the tea a 
little weak — no matter what crossed his gnarly, snarly, 
crooked, and ever-out-of- joint nature, he vented his 
wrath upon his little wife, whether she had anything 
to do with it or not; and though the sun occasionally 
shone for a little season, yet alas ! she knows how fleet- 
ing are the joys of her married life — how few and 
intermittent. 

Yet, there are worse married devils than Old Bow- 
ser. He has never been known to get drunk, beat his wife, 
nor beggar his children. Neither is he half so bad as 
that merchant prince with a magnificent home, with ex- 
cellent wife and children, having every comfort and 
luxury of life; but who employs a procuress for the 
snare of girls into his lecherous clutches, and builds and 
furnishes homes for a dozen concubines. Yea, he 
sometimes holds family prayers, and belongs to the 
Church, gives liberally, acts nobly in public life and 
relations, and is highly honored for his genius, enter- 
prise, and success, in spite of his well-known private 
life ; but none so well knows the deep sting to connubial 
love and purity by the husband's immorality and infidel-> 
ity as does the sad wife, and perhaps her children, whose 
hearts cannot be satisfied by the empty show of kind- 



Husband's Love 51 

ness and affection, nor be charmed away from grief and 
a sense of shame by glittering and luxurious surround- 
ings, nor by the popular favor of that low standard that 
excuses a man's lecherous villainies while it condemns 
and curses and banishes a woman for no greater crime 
and infamy. 

Sometimes a wife and children seem to care nothing 
for the character of such a husband and father, so long 
as they are the subjects of fortune and the objects of 
respect and admiration by reason of his wealth and 
position; but such a state of family sentiment is but an 
indication of that hollow virtue and shallow love which 
characterize so much of the so-called high society (?) 
the price of whose respectability and pleasure is the 
almighty dollar and favorable circumstances. In some 
instances, both husband and wife are immoral, and yet 
they live together with much fashionable display, upon 
the tacit agreement of silence about their domestic frail- 
ties and follies ; but such a married life as this is strictly 
animal and worse than beastly. There can be no true 
love or joy in a relation where there is no virtue nor 
honor; and children born of families reared under such 
conditions, as a rule, never rise above their parental 
level, and generally go first to the dogs and then to 
the Devil. 

There are many kinds of bad husbands. One sort 
is the man who willingly went with his wife to church 
before they were married, but who ceases to go with 
her afterwards, and who will not go with her anywhere 
if he can find an excuse or invent one. He may love her, 
but he has a poor way of showing it. There is no end to 
finding, in various forms, indifferent husbands and bad 
ones ; but it will be more profitable to point out the good 
ones, and show what it takes to make them good; and 



52 The Masterwheel 

we shall address ourselves to this. The good husband 
keeps the family together by prudence, thrift, and econ- 
omy, instead of stripping and shredding it of its support 
and comfort by loose management and bad habits. Mar- 
riage is not merely a scheme of happiness, but it is a 
bond of union and service; and in the strengthening of 
that bond the husband is the responsible power and 
authority upon the family throne. A man marries for 
love and the happiness that comes in this relation, accord- 
ing to the law of nature and divine appointment; but 
the true husband looks also to the greater end of mar- 
riage: the rearing of a family, its culture and devel- 
opment in intelligence, purity, and power, which make 
the world habitable and tolerable through proper do- 
mestic relations. 

The true husband is not only a lover but also a philos- 
opher. He does not marry simply for a honeymoon 
spree — simply for the legitimate gratification of pleas- 
ure or passion — nor yet simply to better himself by com- 
panionship or material advancement. He realizes the 
great natural and divine obligation of rearing a family 
and training it for all the best interests of the world 
in which he lives, and for peopling the world to which 
he goes. In the true husband love and philosophy are 
combined and consummated. 

The chief essential of true husbandhood is abiding 
love. Love in the wife alone becomes a withered and 
widowed flower ; especially if there are no children to be 
loved and love in return, that flower blights and dies 
without fructuation. Even the husband who is true 
and faithful from a sense of duty cannot satisfy the 
cravings of a wife's heart; nor can he be a potential 
bond to hold, bless, and develop his family. To provide 
food, clothing, and education — even the added luxury 



Husband's Love 53 

of a magnificent home — fills only a small measure of a 
husband's obligation. He that does not all of this, if 
he can, hath denied the faith and is worse than an 
infidel; but all this is hollow mockery to a man's wife 
and children, if his love be wanting. 

How often we hear of men who are good livers and 
good providers, and this is often regarded a big thing 
and a high compliment; but if this is all, such a hus- 
band is but little better than a daddy rooster or an old 
drake. "Mother goose," in her old fool gander, has 
vastly the advantage of the wife of such a husband. 
Without this interest and manifested love, the home 
circle has a dead center, and the family must revolve 
around it in a cold and lifeless tread. 

Love in the husband — broader and more comprehen- 
sive in its reach, and more general in its practical appli- 
cation — is not likely to be so tender and delicate as that 
of the wife; but the model husband should respond to 
every refinement of affection, taste, and culture, and 
hold himself in sympathy with and appreciation of his 
frailer, more sensitive, and perceptive companion. Noth- 
ing but love in a man's heart, busy with great affairs in 
the world without, can bring him down to the proper 
consideration of these concerns and sentiments of mar- 
ried life in their minutiae. 

There are some rules of warning for the guidance of 
women in the choice of a husband. Avoid a fast young 
man without an occupation, even though rich; one fond 
of the theater or of fast horses or the race course; or 
one who speaks disrespectfully of his parents, or who 
does not appreciate his sister's company; and one who 
stands around the street corners, hotels, and drug stores, 
smoking cigarettes or indulging in obscenity and pro- 
fanity ; or who talks a great deal about cards and their 



54 The Masterwheel 

tricks; or who brags about a coming estate from his 
well-to-do family relations; or who dislikes the Church 
and profanes the Sabbath; or who talks about religion 
as good only for women and children ; or one who, with 
no visible means of support, lives in idleness; or one 
who is dissipated, depraved, or a gambler — all this, or 
like timber, is not the stuff out of which true husbands 
are made. Young woman, be on your guard. There 
may be exceptional outcomes from such material, but it 
is dangerous to risk the experiment. The would-be 
husband has a good rule to go by, "Choose for a wife 
the daughter of a good mother;" and the same rule 
could be turned to good account by the would-be wife, 
"Choose the son of a good father." For the sake of 
posterity, as well as your own domestic happiness, be 
sure not to marry your kinsfolk — especially your first 
cousins. 

Success and happiness in married life depend prin- 
cipally upon the husband and the husband's love. He 
it is who "pops the question," and who is responsible 
for going into the business. Women are not directly 
responsible for creating the relation. They are very 
shrewd to connive at it and work it out, but they cannot 
propose nor enter into it without being asked. It is 
the man who starts out upon the hunt for a wife; and 
if he is found before he finds somebody, or is "overtaken 
in the way," nevertheless he it is who must make the 
match. He should go into the relation honestly, purely, 
and in accord with the divine purpose for which it was 
instituted. 

A young man came once to consult me upon the sub- 
ject of marriage. He said that he had carefully studied 
the woman he wanted to marry, that he loved her, but 
that he wanted to know God's will about it. He asked 



Husband's Love 55 

me to pray with him over the matter. We did so, con- 
sulting the divine will in such way as seemed to satisfy 
him. He married the young woman, and a happier man 
and wife I never have seen. They still are living, and 
have a large family of happy children, surrounded by 
every comfort of life. This was a case of exercising 
true manhood and the Christian method in making a 
choice. There would not be the multitudinous mis- 
matches and divorces if every lover, before he leaps, thus 
would conscientiously consult his judgment, his best 
friends, and his God. 



WIFE'S LOVE 




EW things are more beautiful and affecting 
than the wife at the gate, at eve, when she 
watches and waits for the home-coming hus- 
band — weary and worn perhaps with the toil 
of business; and the picture is largely enhanced when 
to the scene are added the angelic child and pet dog that 
run to meet the father and master and vie with each 
other in expressions of fondness and affection for him. 
They part with a kiss in the morning, and all day long 
the loving wife thinks of her husband and prides in his 
manhood, dreams of his success, prepares for his com- 
fort, and longs for his coming. Nothing is so sweet 
to her as the thought of reunion after the toilsome day 
is gone. Every day is a dream, intermixed with life's 
realities, of the husband home at night — his courageous 
smile, his manly voice, his vigorous manifestations of 
devotion and care. The zvife at the gate tells the whole 
story of the wife's heart and her devotion. Such a 
home is almost like Heaven, where our loved ones watch 
and wait for us at the beautiful gate. 

The love next to mother's love is that of wife ; it is in 
fact hard to distinguish between them, since it is the 
wife who becomes the mother, and whose conjugal love 
is usually intensified by maternity. A wife without 
children is seldom equal to one who is also a mother; 
(56) 



Wife's Love 59 

for children constitute a new bond of affection between 
husband and wife, elevating both to a higher plane in 
the realm of sentiment; they also constitute the fleshly 
ligament, as that which bound together the Siamese 
twins — Chang and Eng — and serve to bind more closely 
those joined in married life. 

Yes, the wife is next to mother. There is some differ- 
ence, of course, between the love of wife and mother. 
The love of a wife, as such, and the love of a mother, 
as such, may have the same intensity, but they are dif- 
ferent in nature and application. A mother's love is 
stamped upon her at the birth of her children, and is 
developed and matured through vicarious suffering, 
sacrifice, and sympathy for that which is literally flesh 
of her flesh and bone of her bone — life of her own life, 
and dearer to her than her own life. The love of a wife 
is that of inherent affinity between the sexes, enhanced 
by congeniality and equality and all the graces and at- 
tributes of manhood and womanhood which make hus- 
band and wife the complement and counterpart of each 
other. 

A wife's love is often marvelous, beautiful, sublime. 
If true at the beginning, no sort of condition or circum- 
stance can affect it. I have seen the drunkard who had 
often mistreated his wife, and finally beggared his chil- 
dren, still loved with a deathless devotion by an affec- 
tionate wife and followed by her to the end of his dis- 
graceful career. I have seen the lecherous wretch who 
promised fidelity at the marriage altar still clung to by 
the faithful and loving wife ; and in spite of overt infidel- 
ity, that a hundred times deserved divorce, she loved 
him while her heart bled out its life ; and when he was 
dead and gone to the Devil, she would weep over his 
grave and plant flowers upon the sod that covered his 



60 The Masterwheel 

dishonored dust. I have seen the victim of his own 
dishonesty and theft tried, sentenced, and sent to the 
penitentiary, or the murderer hanged upon the gallows ; 
and while all others forsook and despised, the loving 
wife, with their babe upon her bosom, loved him to the 
last. This is the average character of wifehood. Such 
love belongs alone to the heart and life of woman. 

Too much cannot be said of the beauty and power 
of a wife's love. As the mother molds and makes her 
child, so a husband's character is often molded by his 
wife. There may be husbands that good wives cannot 
change for the better, some that bad wives cannot 
change for the worse, but they are exceptions. It is a 
rule of married life, that where wife wears the crown 
of love and wields its scepter, there is also a good hus- 
band as well as good children. "The hand that rocks 
the cradle rules the world;" and so of the hand of her 
who takes our arm and directs us to our proper sphere 
in life. The wise and loving wife does not dictate to 
her husband in matters of business or morals ; but if she 
is wise and loving, he finds in her an almost infallible 
counselor and guide. With the intuition and instinct 
of a true wife, united with the wisdom and judgment of 
a true husband, it is almost impossible for man to err 
or stray; and it is seldom when the wife's heart and 
the husband's hand are put together for good that they 
go wrong. Shirley well says : 

A wife's a man's best piece ; who, till he marries. 
Wants making up ; she is the shrine to which 
Xature doth send us forth on pilgrimage ; 
She was a scion taken from that tree 
Into which, if she had no second grafting. 
The world can have no fruit ; she is man's 
Arithmetic, which teaches him to number 
And multiply himself into his own children; 



Wife's Love 61 

She is a good man's paradise, and the bad's 
First step to heaven ; a treasure which who wants 
Cannot be trusted to posterity, 
Nor pay his own debts; she's a golden sentence 
Writ by our Maker, which the angels may 
Discourse of, only men know how to use. 
And none but devils violate. 

The wife can unmake, as well as make, the husband 
who loves her and follows the constraint of her will and 
affections. If she is unwise and vicious in her turn and 
temperament, he will be the unconscious victim of her 
inclinations and schemes ; and with womanly charm and 
fascination she will wield him, if he is not made of iron, 
in the direction of all her whims and fancies. He may 
be liberally disposed, but she will dry up all his benev- 
olence, and will either make a miser of him, if she loves 
money, or turn his gains into the prodigal display of her 
own pride. She may be a heartless devotee at the 
shrine of society, amusement, or fashion ; and, if so, she 
and her daughters will keep his nose to the grindstone 
of exhaustive toil to provide the means for worldly show 
and satisfaction; while religion and benevolence will be 
beggars at their door, albeit they may be members of 
the Church and professed followers of the meek and 
lowly Master. There have been good husbands whose 
piety and devotion have been utterly bedwarfed by the 
worldly wife and family, so loved by the husband and 
the father that he became, before he was conscious of it, 
the victim of their pride, the tool of their fascinating 
despotism ; and when he found himself in their fetters, 
he had become too weak in his affectionate slavery to 
free himself or to lead his loved ones back to a frugal, 
sensible, righteous life. Sometimes a man, strong-minded 
in other respects, is swayed by the most silly and frivo- 



62 The Masterwheel 

lous wife, lit only for a wax figure in a milliner's shop, 
or to trill and twitter in a bird cage. In matrimony, 
where love is often blind, there is no accounting for 
tastes, nor the eccentricities sometimes manifested. 
Samson, the strongest man, David, the best, and Sol- 
omon, the wisest, erred gravely on the question of wom- 
en, and acted foolishly in the selection of wives. 

Better through life barefooted press, 

Than in a pinching shoe ; 
Better no house or home possess, 

Than have a bad wife too. 

Sometimes the wife is a scold, a termagant, a real she- 
devil in the home. She is always complaining and find- 
ing fault ; and the family has to feed upon her flings and 
stings of temper for breakfast, her fury for dinner, and 
her self-wrought distress for supper. She is seldom in 
good humor, and when she smiles it is like a faint flash 
of lightning from a midnight sky. If she gets the chil- 
dren off to Sunday school, or goes to church on Sunday 
morning, she has spanked every child she has washed 
and dressed, and snarled and snapped at the "old man" 
twenty times. Unable herself to sing or pray, she may 
listen to the sermon, which cuts without curing her ills, 
and has no other effect than to make her accuse her hus- 
band of talking to the preacher about her. Such a wife 
sometimes has a husband of the same timber. Then 
comes the tug of war for Greek and Greek, but usually 
the husband of such a wife is a pool little weakling, and 
meekly submits to the domination of his termagant 
spouse. 

Let us turn to better and sweeter things. The good 
and sensible wife, who loves her husband, her home, and 
her children, is the queen of hearts and the mistress of 



Wife's Love 63 

all the forces by which society is knit together, and the 
world blessed and beautified through domestic influ- 
ences and relation. A splendid wife is the pride and 
joy of a true husband; for she sits upon the throne of 
all the powers which affect the true, the beautiful, and 
the good, in home life and domestic associations. By 
touching her husband, she touches the wellspring of 
manhood, virtue, and honor in every calling and condi- 
tion of human life; and he who has passed out from 
under the heart-touch of a good mother, and comes un- 
der the magic sway of a good wife, has everything fa- 
vorable to his success in business and to the reaching of 
a high destiny in life. Luther's wife contributed largely 
to the success of the Reformation. Josephine was the 
inspiration of Napoleon in the first achievements of his 
ambitions; when he divorced her his "star of destiny" 
passed its meridian. We might multiply illustrations, 
but the effect for good upon the world through the in- 
fluence of the wife upon the husband can never be told. 
Our mothers start us in life, but our wives keep us going. 
The wife is mightiest in the home. The "keepers at 
home" are the keepers of power and the wife loses her 
power when she takes her husband's place or undertakes 
to perform his functions in public or private relations. 
The social, the church, the educational, some charity 
spheres, and some of the business spheres of life are 
consonant with the home sphere, but generally the pub- 
lic affairs of the world, intrusted by God to man, are 
best affected by those women who do their full duty 
as wife and mother, and make good men of their hus- 
bands and boys. A woman in pants is a public monstros- 
ity, and women at the bar, in the pulpit, at the polls, 
on the battlefield, splitting rails, or filling professions 
and places of business are not only displacing men but 



64 The Masterwheel 

beggaring their sex, effeminating their husbands, ener- 
vating and vagabondizing their sons. Besides, they sub- 
ject themselves to corruption and criticism, rob them- 
selves of modesty, and destroy the very life of their do- 
mestic sweetness and power. The influence of the wom- 
an and the wife is an unseen force, like heat or electricity, 
sent from the secluded furnace or power house of the 
home to warm and electrify the world along the wires of 
manly integrity and activity, which should be the me- 
dium for transmitting womanly power in the proper way 
to help and bless the world. 

If he is king in the home circle, she is queen therein, 
his equal in others, his superior in her own sphere. If 
he is the sun in the daytime of toil, struggle, and conflict, 
she is the fair moon that always shines in the nighttime 
of sorrow and care. The coronet of domestic virtues 
ever sits gracefully upon the brow of a good wife, spar- 
kling with the starlike gems of purity, piety, prudence, 
patience, persuasion, pleasantness, and peace; and with 
woman's magic wand she creates the charm which holds 
the husband true as the needle to the pole, to the center 
of life in the home circle. 

The ancient picture of the "model wife" drawn by 
Solomon (Prov. xxxi. 10-31) can never be improved 
upon. "Her price is far above rubies. The heart of 
her husband trusteth in her." "She doeth him good 
and not evil all the days of her life." "Her husband is 
known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of 
the land." 

Alas, this picture has a reverse. Women sometimes 
marry men they do not love, either for money, place, posi- 
tion in society, for the sake of marrying well, or to 
escape the odium o£ single life. They may or may not 
develop love subsequently; but frequently they do not, 



Wife's Love 65 

and sometimes temptations lead them astray by affinity 
for another, or misfortune brings unhappiness or a will- 
ingness to part, or else such mutual dislike and disgust 
set in as to make married life intolerable to the unloving 
wife and to the unloved husband. I know one such pair. 
The husband loves his wife madly, but she declares she 
does not love him and never did! Sometimes a girl 
marries a man to please her parents, when really she 
loves another; and often mismatched couples unite in 
matrimony, under the manipulations of some match- 
maker whose folly lies in trying to do for others what 
they alone, under God, can do for themselves. 

The saddest and most awful step in life is divorce be- 
tween husband and wife. It is a fearful commentary 
upon unhappy marriage, and a travesty upon the happy 
wedding day when, apparently, two hearts, long ago 
plighted in love, were sealed in that world-without-end 
relation. It looks worse than death, though sometimes 
it is necessary. When such a union has been blessed, 
or cursed, with children, separation has all the aspect 
of breaking up with God, as we break up his holy insti- 
tution, and deprive our little ones of the life and charm 
of the home circle. 
5 



FATHER'S LOVE 




HE illustration for this chapter is taken from 
a scene in Nashville — found indeed in almost 
any city — where a certain class of dudes con- 
gregate on the drug-store corners to flirt with 
young women who happen to pass by. It is often very 
annoying and offensive. Perhaps but for a few loose 
girls who encourage these indecent wretches in their 
blackguard avocation there would be less of the nui- 
sance. A young lady reported to her father the annoy- 
ance she had undergone at the hands of the corner 
loungers and the next morning he followed his daughter 
to the place indicated. The youths, unaware of his pres- 
ence, ventured the usual offense ; and the old gentleman, 
cane in hand, so belabored them with blows that they left 
the scene in wild confusion, and some of them with 
aching pates. 

Not so much has been said in prose or poetry about 
the father and the father's love as about the mother and 
the mother's love. Our fathers are the original source 
of our offspring, as our mothers are the vicarious suf- 
ferers through whom we come into being. The father 
is the responsible author of our being, the authoritative 
protector and preserver of our life, the priest and min- 
ister held immediately accountable for all our wants of 
soul, mind, and body. But the mother is the guardian 
(66) 



Father's Love 69 

angel who gives us birth through suffering and develops 
us through sacrifice; who watches with ceaseless vigil 
over our cradle and feeds us with the milk of life; who 
leads us by the hand and first teaches us to think and 
feel, to walk and talk; who, in the tenderest and most 
sympathetic relation known to earth, gives the start, the 
impulse, and the inspiration to our life. The life of the 
mother and that of the child are one, not only by birth 
and blood, but by the inseparable infusion and transfu- 
sion of spirit and love ; and the slightest pang or joy of 
the child is a deeper touch to the mother's love than even 
to its own heart and life. A mother's love is the genius 
and spirit of innate sympathy, part and parcel of her 
being wrought into that of her child. 

Our fathers are affected toward us more upon the 
principle and pride of procreation and consanguinity, 
of kindred relationship ; and a father's love for his child 
is next best to that of a mother, and second only to 
mother's love in the scale of human affection. The old 
cock that walks along by the side of the clucking hen 
and her chickens, and helps to watch and feed them, 
does not think of and love the little ones as much as 
the hen; but he is very proud of the old lady and the 
children, and if the hawk comes he will join her in a 
bloody fight against the enemy. If either of the pair 
runs, however, it will be the daddy rooster, not the moth- 
er hen; for she will fight a hawk to the death for her 
brood, while the rooster, though he may run during the 
battle, will make a great noise and crow loudly in tri- 
umph when the hen has won the victory. It occasionally 
happens that the rooster w T ill sit on the nest while the 
hen takes a rest or seeks for food and water, and it has 
been known that a rooster, upon the death of a hen, 
would take the brood and care for it ; but it is seldom that 



70 The Masterwheel 

the male bird, fish or animal, reaches such a high moth- 
erly instinct. 

This, however, is hardly a fair illustration of the re- 
lationship and love of a father to his family. True, most 
fathers have but little use for the baby until it can walk 
and chirp like a young chicken ; but he is proud and af- 
fectionate when he and mother can go walking, with 
the little one between them finely dressed, toddling, and 
chattering. He does, as a rule, love his baby from the 
day of its birth ; but it is a troublesome thing in infancy, 
and he is neither qualified by nature nor disposed in 
heart to handle and care for it until it is somewhat able 
to take care of itself. Then it is a thing of beauty and 
a joy forever — sweet and precious enough to look at 
and boast of. It is not until the child has begun to grow 
and develop in beauty, life, and promise that most fathers 
begin to realize their pride, their love, and their joy, in 
the appreciation of their own flesh and blood. Occa- 
sionally, forced by unfortunate circumstances, to the 
best of his ability a father plays mother from the start; 
and however far he may fall short of a mother's love 
and ability to care for his child, he often manifests the 
parental instinct from infancy through childhood to the 
maturity of his children. 

There are some fathers who show a deep touch of the 
motherly instinct. David was a man of just this type. 
Passion and devotion were quite as natural to him as 
life and hope. His parental anxiety and agony over 
the sickness and death of Bath-sheba's child is a mag- 
nificent illustration of parental love; and down to his 
old age, in spite of Absalom's desperate character, and 
repeated deceptions, David loved his boy with an 
overwhelming affection. There's nothing in Holy Writ 
so pathetic as David's loving interest and apprehension 



Father's Love 71 

for Absalom at the battle of the woods of Ephraim. In 
view of the wicked attitude and awful rebellion of that 
son toward his father, there is nothing in history com- 
parable to the affectionate and soul-harrowing lament 
of David over the death of his boy, when in the anguish 
of despair he exclaimed: "O my son Absalom, my son, 
my son Absalom ! would God I had died for thee !" Here 
was something of the sacrificial, the substitutional, the vi- 
carious love of a mother, in which, in all the fullness of 
forgiveness, the father loved his wicked boy and would 
have died in his stead. So of the old father who, when 
his son was about to be hanged for a crime, stepped be- 
fore the court and begged that he might take the place 
of his boy. Nearly every mother on earth would make 
herself a vicarious offering under the same circum- 
stances, and there are some fathers whose love reaches 
this depth of instinctive devotion to their flesh and blood. 
But many fathers have scarcely an animal love for 
their offspring, turn their backs upon them in vice or 
misfortune, disinherit them for violating their wishes, 
and pay more attention to the culture of dogs and horses 
and the accumulation of money than to the welfare of 
their children. Hideous monsters men have been who, 
in tyranny and power, have imprisoned, banished, or 
murdered their offspring, in the interest of their own 
selfish plots, aims, and ambitions. 

The love of the true father, widely different from that 
of the mother, is also manifested in a different way from 
hers. He dwells not so much in the inner circle of the 
home and is not so much in touch with its tenderest sym- 
pathies and relationships. He cannot see, know, and 
feel the vital and needed wants of the family about the 
fireside as the mother can ; and in all the affectional and 
moral demands of filial dependence upon the heart of the 



72 The Masterwheel 

parent, the father is generally but partially touched. He 
is out yonder in the great battle of life for subsistence, 
intently absorbed and diligently employed with his busi- 
ness, his profession, or, it may be, his schemes of ambi- 
tion. He loves his wife and children ; but he thinks of 
them as being fed, clothed, educated, and lifted to high 
place, respectability, honor, renown, according to his 
pride in them or his personal aspirations. He has often 
to forget them for the time in order to think, plan, and 
work for their welfare. His love is more general than 
special, more of principle than of passion, more rational 
than fervent. With gladness he meets his family in 
the evening, or accompanies them to church on Sunday, 
or goes with them to places of pleasure at odd times; 
but he is only partially touched by the family heart and 
life with which the mother is always in closest contact. 
The good father doing these things is doubtless all he 
should be, in the manifestation of family love ; and while 
it is not of the same degree of fineness of character, nor 
so intensive as that of the mother, yet in the nature and 
condition of married life and family relationship the 
father's love is faithful, constant, perpetual, and fills the 
measure of its purpose. 

In sickness, trial, or misfortune, the same peculiarity 
of manifestation which differentiates the love of father 
and mother under ordinary circumstances continues. 
The first shock of affliction may seemingly crush the 
mother, while the father stands the blow with greater 
fortitude ; yet in the long run the mother can endure that 
under which the father would sink. A mother's love, 
under misfortune or disgrace in the home, seldom yields 
to despair, to the opium bottle, or to suicide; but often 
the stalwart and once heroic father breaks down, gives 
up, or ceases to feel that life is worth living. The dis- 



Father's Love 73 

grace or infidelity of the husband seldom breaks the tie 
of love which binds the wife; but let the stain be on the 
wife, and the husband's love is usually destroyed. Thus 
in relation to the family, while the father may cast out 
the disgraced son or daughter, the mother often clings 
the closer, the deeper the stain upon her child. There 
are no limitations to a mother's love ; but there are limita- 
tions to the love of many fathers, reached by conditions 
which cross their pride, their hopes, or their ambition. 

There is one being that a father often loves above ev- 
ery other upon earth — his daughter. Addison says: 
"Certain it is that there is no kind of affection so purely 
angelic as that of a father to a daughter. He beholds her 
both with and without regard to her sex. In love to our 
wives there is desire ; to our sons there is ambition ; but 
in that to our daughters there is something which there 
are no words to express." As Scott says: 

If there be a tear so meek 
It would not stain an angel's cheek, 
'Tis that which pious fathers shed 
Upon a duteous daughter's head. 

And Euripides ages ago said: "To a father waxing 
old, nothing is dearer than a daughter; sons have spir- 
its of higher pitch, but less inclined to sweet, endearing 
fondness." Even where there is no deep love for wife, 
and no lasting affection for son, there is nothing on earth 
so dear to a father as his daughter, and nothing can so 
surely break his heart as to be disappointed in her. The 
last tie that bound Aaron Burr to this life or to the world 
that despised him was his daughter; and who can tell 
the deathless affection which old Cymon, put in prison 
to starve, must have felt for that faithful daughter who 



74 The Masterwheel 

secretly nourished and supported him with the milk from 
her own bosom ? 

Woman's brain and heart are composed of finer mate- 
rial, her intellections and affections blend more readily 
with her intuitions, and enable her to know and feel more 
mightily in a moment than most men by the processes 
of reason in a lifetime. Coarser and stronger by nature, 
man is more logical and vigorous in mind, less imagina- 
tive and affectionate, subject to the play of baser appe- 
tites and passions, in which woman is chiefly negative 
or passive. Man is more the animal ; woman, more the 
angel ! It would not do for man to be effeminate even 
in love ; and yet his love ought to be marked by that ardor 
which characterizes everything else manly in his nature. 
There is nothing greater than that lofty love which 
makes the noble husband and father, and which enshrines 
and shields the tender love of mother and children about 
the sacred altar of home. 

The father is a pattern to his family. His boys, at 
least, are almost certain to follow his example, good or 
bad. A mother's love may keep her girls, may some- 
times affect her sons ; but, as a rule, the father's life and 
example will mold their character and fix their destiny 
for time and eternity. Sheridan Knowles had it right 
when he said : 

What is there like a father to a son ? 
A father quick in love, wakeful in care, 
Tenacious in trust, proof in experience, 
Severe in honor, perfect in example, 
Stamped with authority. 

Finally, no one except the mother needs so much to 
be a true lover as the father of a family. He needs a 
love that holds every interest, temporal and eternal, of 



Father's Love 75 

his loved ones dearer to his heart than his own life. 
Conscious of his accountability to God for the gift of 
his children, he should look the responsibility squarely 
in the face, knowing the greatest blessing or curse to a 
father, in the day of judgment, will depend upon his 
treatment and training of the family. Nothing can meet 
this responsibility but love — that fatherly affection which 
prizes above all things else the body, mind, and soul of 
those intrusted to his care. 




MOTHER'S LOVE 




FTER all we have said about home and love 
in the home, the chief attraction of that sa- 
cred spot is the mother. The principal ele- 
ment in the happiness and joy of the home 
is the mother's love. There may be but little fire in the 
grate, no carpet on the floor, no picture on the wall, 
no curtains to the windows, no instrument of music, 
few books, few of the comforts of life, and the table 
may have no luxuries; but in the cold wintry world a 
good mother's tender love and pious care, her sacrificial 
devotion and watchful interest, kindle the grate, carpet 
the floor, beautify the walls, shade the windows, attune 
the air, nourish the mind and heart, administer consola- 
tion, and make appetent and wholesome the most frugal 
board. How often it has been sung: "What is home 
without a mother?" Wisely and well it has been said: 

Better than gold is a peaceful home, 
Where all the fireside charities come ; 
The shrine of love and the heaven of life, 
Hallowed by mother, or sister, or wife 
However humble the home may be, 
Or tried with sorrows by heaven's decree, 
The blessings that never were bought or sold, 
That center there, are better than gold. 

(76) 




Mother's Love. 



Mother's Love 79 

There are not descriptive terms enough in the lan- 
guage to define the word "mother." It is the next 
word to God. However illimitable the distance between 
God and the best of the universe, a mother's love is the 
brightest shadow of the infinite affection that beams 
from the heart of God. "If there be aught/' says a 
beautiful author, "surpassing human deed or word or 
thought, it is a mother's love;" and what is true of a 
mother's love must be true of the mother herself. A 
woman never becomes herself — truly — until she be- 
comes a mother. She possesses all the latent elements 
of motherhood, for she is woman, the best of God's 
creatures when truly woman; but it is when she gives 
birth and training, through pain and patience, to the 
flesh of her flesh that she develops those inherent ele- 
ments of womanhood which make the sum total of all 
that can be found purest and best in human nature. As 
daughter, sister, wife, she surpasses all else that the 
fair hand of creation has fashioned; but when she be- 
comes mother, her womanly excellence becomes a vica- 
rious touch of the divine. There are some indifferent 
or bad mothers, but they are unnatural, or the fault of 
environment or heredity, and are the rarest exceptions 
known to all rules. Even the irreligious mother is, by 
nature, the highest type and deepest impersonation of 
excellence in virtue, love, and sacrifice, but the "mother 
in Israel" is next to God and heaven. Even Jesus 
Christ had a mother; thus the highest compliment ever 
paid to mortals was when Divinity condescended to in- 
carnation through the Virgin Mary. 

We have spoken of what love, courtship, marriage, 
and home have done for the world ; but all this good and 
glory are incidental to that of the mother and the moth- 
er's love. Her heart and life are the center in which 



80 The Masterwheel 

all their beauty, excellence, and power concentrate, and 
the source from which their beneficent and effective 
forces spring into gracious and useful results. Take 
the mother and the mother's love out, and there would 
be little left. The heart of the mother is the' fountain 
of life, virtue, goodness, and usefulness in the world; 
for that fountain is the source of nourishment which 
gives moral vitality, health, and vigor to humanity. 
"At first," says Beecher, "babes feed on their mother's 
bosom, but always on her heart/' and the great Napo- 
leon affirmed, "The destiny of the child is always the 
work of the mother." 

I shall never forget my mother. In the worst and 
darkest moments of my life, however far away from 
home, even amid the thunders of battle or pining in 
the hospital or wandering in forbidden paths, I ever 
felt that my mother's hand was upon my head, and that 
her prayers followed me; and amid all the relationships 
of life and achievements I have never ceased to realize 
that my mother's life, love, and counsel were the ele- 
ments that mingled with my thoughts and emotions that 
made possible the best I am and the best I have accom- 
plished. I never loved and appreciated that mother as 
I ought ; but she ever loved and cared for me. 

It is interesting to note that among all the sweetest 
and most tender relationships of life none can take the 
place of a mother, especially during the perilous period 
in which life's habits are forming. In after life the 
good wife becomes something of the mother to the 
man, and so the husband becomes something of the 
father to the woman; but in infancy, childhood, and 
growth, up to the finishing touches of young manhood 
and womanhood, the mother is absolutely indispensable 
to our heart-culture and life-development. Even up to 



Mother's Love 81 

maturity and down to old age the mother is essential 
to every early recollection and to the calling up of all 
the past that blended our life with hers, and wrought 
within us our best elements of character; but our first 
years and the beginnings of life cannot, without great 
danger, be separated from the mother's bosom and the 
mother's smile, the mother's tender love and care, the 
mother's heart and life. 

Washington Irving confirms the experience and ob- 
servation of us all when he says: "A father may turn 
back on his child, or brothers and sisters may become 
inveterate enemies, husbands may desert their wives, 
and wives their husbands; but a mother's love endures 
through all. In good repute and bad repute, in the face 
of the world's condemnation, a mother still loves and 
still hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways 
and repent; still she remembers the infant smile, that 
once filled her bosom with rapture, the merry laugh, the 
joyful shouts of his childhood, the opening promises of 
his youth, and she can never be brought to think him 
unworthy." 

At a certain great revival in Louisville, a wild and 
reckless young man, for whom his mother had prayed for 
years, was powerfully and happily converted. In giving 
his testimony he told of his life and shame through the 
wanderings of sin and debauchery. As he talked he 
sobbed, and so sobbed the large audience that heard him. 
At the close of his related experience the old mother, 
who, unknown to him, was in the audience, ran up with 
streaming eyes and clasped her son in her arms and 
kissed him; and as she did so she said: "Charlie, my 
son, you were never bad, and you never did those things 
of which you spoke. You are my good boy, Charlie." 
How like the mother, whose love "covers a multitude of 



82 The Masterwheel 

sins;" and in her love how like God, who, when we re- 
pent, forgets that we ever sinned, and casts our iniqui- 
ties behind him, where he cannot see them ever again! 
Others may stand back and criticise; father, brother, 
and sister may rejoice and hope with some doubt for 
the future; but the old mother forgets that her boy was 
ever bad at all, and in her forgiving and beautiful love 
feels that he never will sin again. The old Spanish 
proverb is ever true: "An ounce of mother is worth a 
pound of clergy." 

It is remarkable to note the tribute of great men to 
their mothers, and to observe the influence of mothers 
in shaping the lives and destinies of great men. Wash- 
ington ascribed all the glory of his life to his mother. 
The piety and wisdom of their mother made the Wes- 
leys. John Randolph was called a Frenchman because 
he espoused the side of the French in politics ; but, while 
he denied the charge, he said: "I should have been a 
French atheist if it had not been for one recollection, 
and that was when my departed mother used to take my 
little hand in hers, and cause me on my knees to say, 
'Our Father who art in heaven.' ' Sir Walter Scott 
took his uncommon gift in word-painting from his moth- 
er, who was a great lover of poetry and art. Lord 
Bacon's mother was possessed of superior mind, and of 
great learning and piety. The fiery energy of Napoleon 
was due to his mother. The mother of Robert Burns 
was full of ballads and songs. What is true of the 
good is true of the bad in genius among men. The 
mother of Nero was a murderess. The mother of Byron 
was a proud woman, hasty, violent, and unreasonable, 
and had no control of her temper — a disposition which 
her son inherited, and which enslaved and ruined him. 
What of such a mother as Lady Macbeth, who, in order 



Mother's Love 83 

to screw the courage of her husband to the sticking- 
point in the murder of Duncan, said : 

I have given suck, and know 
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me ; 
I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, 
And dash'd the brains out, had I sworn as you 
Have done to this. 

God be thanked that there have been few such moth- 
ers in the world as Lady Macbeth, or the mothers of 
Nero, Byron, Benedict Arnold, and others whose hered- 
ity and early training made them the hideous monsters 
of vice, crime, and tyranny which history shows them 
to have been. There is nothing out of hell so bad as 
a bad mother. 

The secret of a mother's love lies in her unselfishness. 
In the language of Mrs. Sigourney : "Her first ministra- 
tion to her infant is to enter, as it were, the valley of 
the shadow of death, and win its life in the peril of 
her own." Her love is similar to the love of Christ, 
"who died for us." Eternal life is the result of the 
Redeemer's travail, and the temporal life of every hu- 
man being is but the price of a mother's travail — next to 
death, and often resulting in death. Hence, none can 
love us like Christ and our mother; and what is true 
at our birth is true of a mother's love all through her 
ministrations in every stage of our development. Her 
devotion is sacrificial, substitutional, unselfish — the 
highest and purest form in which it is possible to mani- 
fest affection. There have been some exceptional illus- 
trations of friendship and love, in which one friend died 
for another; but there is scarcely any exception to the 
statement that the mother would at any time die, as she 



84 The Masterwheel 

ever lives, for her children. The mother who stripped 
herself of her own clothing in a snowstorm to cover 
her child, while with it alive in her arms she perished, 
is but an example of a mother's vicarious love, to which, 
in like cases, we could find scarcely an exception in all 
the world. No mother ever had anything too good for 
her child, and I have sometimes seen her give the last 
she had to the worst and most thriftless boy in the 
world. How' often, like God's children, her child tram- 
ples upon her affections and breaks her heart, only to 
be loved and forgiven a thousand times ; and she would 
go to the ends of the earth to fondle and feed the wretch 
that had scorned her love and dishonored her name. 
That was a true mother who left the front door always 
unlatched for the return of her wayward daughter, who, 
after years of shame, came back to the unlatched door 
and received the welcome of a love that brought her 
back to repentance and a virtuous life. 

There must be the element of motherhood in the love 
of God as manifested in the Holy Spirit. I have often 
thought of God as father, the Son as brother, and the 
Holy Spirit, the Divine Comforter of us all, as mother. 
I have wondered if Christ, imbued with the deep ex- 
perience of mother love, did not enter glory with his 
divinity "touched" with a mother's life, and so send us 
the Comforter as the representative of motherhood. 
That gentle, tender, dovelike Spirit, so patient and 
long-suffering with our sins, so wooingly persuasive 
and persistent, so sweetly consoling and helpful, so hard 
to drive away, is like a mother. The Bible reveals to us 
the vengeance of the Father upon the wicked ; it tells us 
of the "wrath" of the meek and lowly Lamb upon the 
finally impenitent, but it cites us only to the convicting, 
enlightening, quickening, sanctifying, comforting power 



Mother's Love 85 

of the Holy Ghost. The very travail of God in the 
birth of his children is the maternal agony of the Spirit 
who maketh intercession for us with groanings that 
cannot be uttered. In the tri-personal work of the 
Deity in salvation, the last one to leave us is the Holy 
Spirit, and the only unpardonable sin, like the sin against 
a mother, is blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. 



LOVE FOR CHILDREN 




HAT is home without a baby? Home with- 
out children is at best but a poor apology for 
that sacred institution, and it is of the Devil 
when children are prevented from blessing 
the marriage relation. The greatest treasure intrusted 
to mortals is the gift of children. There are those who 
love money, fame, place, or pleasure better; yea, their 
horses, cattle, or dogs. There are those who have no 
love for children at all, but they are like the man who 
has no music in his soul, of whom Shakespeare says: 

Let no such man be trusted. 

There are some married people who seem to love each 
other, and yet do not want children, but I have always 
thought that there was something wrong in the love 
and relationship of such people. There is some selfish 
or impure motive at the bottom of such marriage; for 
the absence of desire for children in the conjugal rela- 
tion is unnatural and antipodal to the divine purpose 
of marriage. There must be in the nature of things 
some marriage relations barren of children, but one evi- 
dence of true love and right motive in this relation is 
the desire for children; and what God and nature have 
denied them in offspring of their own they sometimes 
endeavor to make up by adoption. I have often ad- 
(86) 



Love for Children 89 

mired this noble instinct in people who, having no chil- 
dren of their own, take the orphan and love it and nur- 
ture it as if it were their own. Thank God for the 
orphanage and the lover of orphans ! 

There are some married and unmarried people to 
whom children are a nuisance. I heard a young man 
in company once say: "I despise a baby!" There were 
young ladies present, to whom I said: "Beware of him; 
don't marry him." In a woman such a feeling is still 
more abhorrent, and yet I have known women who had 
.no pleasure in children. 

There are in the cemeteries more short graves than 
long ones. God loves these little ones who make up 
the lambs of his multitudinous fold. It is devilish to 
despise or ignore children; and he, she, or it that has 
no love for children cannot be of God or his Christ, but 
is of Satan, who seeks to destroy or corrupt them as fast 
as they are born. They who love not children nor show 
them patient care, especially they who prevent their be- 
ing or willfully destroy them, will never see heaven, for 
heaven is full of children, and the child-hater would find 
heaven a hell, since so many children are there. We 
shall all be children there, and only in hell will no chil- 
dren be found. We take it very hard when our children 
die and go to God ; but God, who gave them, has a right 
to take them and transplant them with amaranthine glo- 
ry in the garden of heaven. Longfellow beautifully 
wrote of the death of children when he said : 

There is a Reaper whose name is Death. 



He gazed at the flowers with tearful eyes, 
He kissed their drooping leaves ; 

It was for the Lord of Paradise 
He bound them in his sheaves. 



90 The Masterwheel 

The immortal men and women who have blessed and 
gladdened the earth usually have loved children, and 
only such will want to go where the children abide for- 
ever. One of the strongest ties that bind us to God 
and heaven is love for one of our children now in heav- 
en ; and nothing so breaks the ties that bind us to earth, 
nor makes death so sweet, as the consciousness of that 
faith which animated David when he said of his dead 
child: "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to 
me." How often we say with the poet : 

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight; 
Make me a child again just for to-night. 
Mother, come back from yon echoless shore; 
Take me again to your heart as of yore ; 
Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care; 
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair ; 
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep; 
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep. 

Strike a child, and you strike the world and make it 
fight. Americans will never forget the loss of little 
Charlie Ross, many years ago in Philadelphia, the first 
case of child abduction in this country. Nothing so 
moves us as the sickness or ill-treatment of a little child. 
Riding upon a railroad train some years ago, a country 
husband and wife got aboard with a pretty little girl — 
curly-haired, rosy-cheeked, and blue-eyed. She at- 
tracted the attention of almost everybody on board, es- 
pecially as she looked frightened and seemed afraid at 
her first experience on the cars. When the engine whis- 
tle blew and the train started with something of a jerk, 
she began to cry. The mother coaxed and petted, but to 
no purpose; and the father, vexed and angry, began to 
scold and slap the little cherub, only to make matters 
worse. This brought down a storm of indignation from 



Love for Children 91 

the passengers, especially the feminine portion ; and you 
could hear from one end of the coach to the other the 
epithets: "Brute!" "Ruffian!" "Fool!" "Wretch!" and 
one of them called out "Devil!" Every uncomplimen- 
tary name of which the exquisitely sharp tongue of angry 
and outraged woman is capable was heaped upon the 
head of that rash, foolish husband and father, and so 
loud that he might hear it. "He ought to be killed," 
said one; "Put him off!" cried another; "He ought to 
be cowhided!" exclaimed another; and if all had been 
done to him which found expression in angry utterance, 
the man would have been rent in pieces. The contemp- 
tuous scowls, accompanied by flushed faces and flashing 
eyes, were sufficient to have terrified a Hercules with 
his club; but the idiotic father trying to force his child 
to silence did not hear the storm of hissing indignation 
until his wife became ashamed and called his attention 
to it. He subsided, but the sweet little girl kept on cry- 
ing, until a benevolent-looking lady came and asked for 
the child; and, taking it to her seat, she brushed away 
the tears, stroked her curls, kissed her cheeks, and by 
some sort of soothing or assuring art got the child 
quieted, then to looking out of the window, then to 
talking, and finally to laughing. Love for children in 
her heart, good common sense, and tactful treatment 
did it all. 

The great difficulty is to love bad children, and to 
know what to do with them; and yet, with few excep- 
tions, nothing but love will do them any good. Some chil- 
dren are born worse than others, and thousands of them 
by heredity and environment seem impossible of recla- 
mation. In the family, in the school, on the street, and in 
bad associations with one another, they often present 
problems in discipline, culture, and redemption hard of 



92 The Masterwheel 

solution, and problems without solution to those who do 
not love them. All sorts of punishments or harsh meas- 
ures fail to help certain children, although it may be true 
that there are certain others who can be reached only 
by the rod, a hickory rod, and the rougher the better. 
But usually it is love alone, true philanthropic sympathy, 
that can come down to bad children, cure them of their 
malady, and lift them to a better life. It can be em- 
ployed in the schoolroom by a sensible, loving teacher; 
and so in the Sunday school. It should be employed 
first of all in the family by sensible, loving parents ; and 
it can be used with profit in reformatories, training 
schools, and workhouses, by those who attempt the ref- 
ormation and elevation of the children intrusted to their 
care. Authority and wisdom, backed by love, can 
straighten up anything human, especially if they begin 
work early. I have known not only individual boys 
and girls, but whole classes of them, redeemed from the 
haunts of vice and taken from the alleys and gutters by 
a loving man or woman who went out and gathered 
them into the Sunday school, then brought them into the 
church, and later into business and proper social rela- 
tions. We must go out and go down after these stray- 
ing ones, bring them into a different atmosphere, and 
break the thrall of their environment; and when once 
saved from their surroundings, wisdom and practical 
care and love w r ill do the rest. 

But how are you going to have love for bad children, 
or get it if you do not have it? Selfishness, not philan- 
thropy, rules the hearts of most people; and ordinarily 
but few of us have any love for the bad. How then 
are we going to get this love? Few, if any, have it 
naturally. It must come from God, the first source 
of all right love, and be cultivated by our own efforts. 



Love for Children 93 

Without Christianity, philanthropy is almost impos- 
sible. 

Much depends upon the start a child has in the world. 
The first things a child learns — the first impressions 
made upon its heart and mind — are the most lasting of 
all. To begin and grow up in the atmosphere of vicious 
and unloving surroundings, to know nothing of fatherly 
care and motherly affection, and to be accustomed to 
the sounds of brawls and profanity, is the lot of thou- 
sands of our children not only in the city but also in the 
country, and sometimes in respectable homes, as well as 
in hovels of poverty and ignorance. The only disci- 
pline many of them are subjected to is the cowhide or 
the hickory, both good when absolutely necessary and 
when other and better things fail; but in a bad home 
and with a bad parental example, the rod of authority 
becomes an impotent scepter. But few parents or teach- 
ers realize the sentiments of Thomson : 

Delightful task ! to rear the ten,der thought, 
To teach the young idea how to shoot, 
To pour fresh instructions o'er the mind. 
To breathe the enlivening spirit, and fix 
A generous purpose in the glowing breast. 




FILIAL LOVE 




OW much a grown-up boy or girl costs is be- 
yond computation. Food and clothing items 
are as nothing compared with those long 
years of watching and fatigue, of patient 
toil and ceaseless attention, of fears and prayers, of in- 
struction and correction, of love and sacrifice spent by 
the parents — none can tell what the baby costs. It is 
from the beginning an imperious little despot. Mother, 
father, brother, sister, and all the kinsfolk and neigh- 
bors have to bow in homage at its feet and yield to its 
every demand for adoration, praise, and assistance. 
None dares to dispute its supremacy, superiority, or 
beauty over all other babies; and none thinks of com- 
plaining of the troubles and trials it imposes. 

Why all this cost, and why all this attention and honor 
paid to the baby? Because for its size it is the greatest 
thing in the world. It is worth all that it costs, and due 
all the homage and devotion paid to it. It is God's mas- 
terpiece, and within its plastic brain and pulsing heart 
are all the possibilities of immortality. It is the min- 
iature likeness of God, its infinite prototype; and within 
its embryonic entity lies its temporal and eternal destiny. 
What it may or may not be, none can tell ; and what ft 
can be and should be are quite within the grasp of 
parental care. Herein lies the tremendous responsibil- 
fo 4 ) 



Filial Love 97 

ity for the life of that babe, all in proportion to its inher- 
ent greatness and possibilities, dependent for develop- 
ment and salvation upon parental love and training. No 
wonder father and mother love this little godlike gift 
intrusted to them. They love it instinctively, as the ani- 
mal loves its young; but, infinitely above instinct or in- 
tuition, reason grasps the immortal value of infancy and 
its possibilities. In the light of God and eternity, we 
love our children as God loves us. Parental love is not 
only natural, but it is rational and moral — yea, divine. 
Quite the best evidence of bestiality and total depravity 
in mankind is the absence from the parental heart of 
love for children. 

Next to this the sweetest and most beautiful earthly 
thing is the love of children for their parents. Little 
puppies and little birds love their mothers from instinct. 
It would be strange and unnatural to find a child that 
did not love its mother at first from instinct, and later, 
when old enough to appreciate the relation of parent to 
child, from reason. Somehow, love for parent ends 
with the young animal when weaned, and it no longer 
recognizes its natural connection with or dependence 
upon its parent ; but the older the child grows the deeper 
and more rational becomes its love for those who gave 
it birth and trained it for life and immortality. This is 
evidence of the human as distinguished from the ani- 
mal; and when this evidence does not exist or continue, 
it proves the human to have fallen to the animal plane. 
The boy or girl who does not love father and mother 
is infinitely below a mean dog or a worthless cat, and had 
better not been born. A child without filial love cannot 
love God, nor be loved of him, for God's law of filial 
relation is, "Honor thy father and thy mother/' and 
without this no child can hope to win heaven. 
7 



98 The Masterwheel 

The finest illustration of infancy, childhood, youth, and 
manhood, in relation to filial affection and devotion, is 
Jesus, the Son of Mary. He was miraculously con- 
ceived, and yet naturally born of his mother. He was 
the "Babe in the Manger," the infant Redeemer, the 
Son of God, who came to give us a divine example of 
babyhood and boyhood, youth and manhood, in his love 
and obedience to his mother; and he naturally and hu- 
manly grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and 
man, as he yielded submission to his mother and re- 
ceived a mother's training. He so loved that mother as 
never to disobey her, nor did he ever cause her a moment 
of needless pain. He was so purely and perfectly de- 
veloped in his human nature as to be the fit abode of God 
Incarnate, prepared in body and spirit for his divine mis- 
sion. As he loved and obeyed his mother in childhood 
and youth, he never forgot her in manhood and death. 
Among his last words on the cross he said to John, "Be- 
hold thy mother;" and to his mother, "Behold thy son." 
Thus his last thought, amid the agonies and death of the 
cross, was of that mother to whom he gave his first 
thought in infancy and childhood. It took a human moth- 
er to make the Redeemer of the world human, to train 
his human nature for his mission ; and it took the human 
love and obedience of Jesus to a human mother to give 
him all those human attributes and qualifications that 
enabled him, as God, to be touched with our infirmities, 
and so become our great sympathetic High Priest. Had 
Jesus ever failed to love and obey his mother, he would 
have failed to become our Redeemer. His purity and 
perfection as the child of Mary, combined with his divin- 
ity and power as the Son of God, enabled him in mighty* 
conflict with the world, the flesh, and the devil to come 
off more than conqueror. Jesus was the model child, 



Filial Love 99 

the model man, as well as the perfect God. What a les- 
son to children, the Saviour's obedience ! 

Every mother may be a Mary with her child, which, 
though not born sinless, may be so trained to love and 
obedience, tk in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," 
as to be early grafted by faith into the true Vine, the 
Tree of Life. Love and train your children, as Mary 
loved and trained Jesus; then they will love and follow 
you until they find Christ and begin to follow him. 
There would be few failures in rearing children if all 
were such mothers as Mary. 

Jesus loved children with great tenderness. You re- 
member he set a little child in the midst of his disciples 
as the pattern of the Christian who should enter the 
kingdom of God. He expressly said, "Suffer the little 
children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of 
such is the kingdom of God;" if parents would love 
and appreciate their children as Jesus did, and not for- 
bid their access to him, the world would soon be saved. 
Somehow children, more easily than older folks, under- 
stand Jesus, and more readily believe, love, and obey 
him, especially when trained by pious parents. 

How beautiful the example of Hannah, who asked 
God to give her a child, and when Samuel was born, she 
"lent" him to the Lord as long as he should live ! Love 
did this through faith and obedience, both upon the part 
of the mother and the boy; and God not only accepted 
her gift, but made Samuel so great that none of his words 
ever fell to the ground ; his mighty deeds and history left 
a lasting stamp on Israel and the world. Filial love is 
the fruit of parental love; and when that love is char- 
acterized by religion and piety, it bears fruit to eternal 
life in the destiny of our children. Should there be an 
exception to the rule, then the fault is not the parents' ;, 

LOFC. 



100 The Masterwheel 

and if the child goes astray, they have this consolation, 
that the blame cannot be laid to their charge at the 
judgment. 

The other day I saw a father and his son kiss as they 
met at the store, though in a public place and in the 
presence of others. After a purchase of some little ar- 
ticles father and son went out and rode off together. 
Then some one remarked that such a father was fool- 
ish about his children, and his children were foolish 
about him and each other. The mother had recently died, 
and the intercourse between the two children and their 
father seemed to me the height of real beauty and true 
sentiment, instead of foolishness ; and I pitied those peo- 
ple to whom love was ridiculous. How few know any- 
thing of such love as this ! and how seldom we see such 
manifestations of love between parents and their chil- 
dren ! To have seen this young man so kiss his mother 
or his sister would not have been specially remarkable, 
but to see him and his father kiss was an unusual and 
tenderly touching incident. I know that boy. Instead 
of seeking companionship with his fellows about the 
drug-store corners or the hotels, or upon the streets 
at night, or in other worse places and worse company, he 
is at home with his father, his sister, and his books. His 
obedience and love are in marvelous contrast with hun- 
dreds of young people, especially young men, who would 
scorn to kiss their fathers, and who would kiss mother 
or sister but sheepishly. 

One of the noblest exhibitions of manhood and wom- 
anhood is the filial affection and obedience of son and 
daughter toward father and mother. I know nothing 
else which so makes manly men and womanly women. 
One of the finest exemplifications of this fact is seen in 
a family of four boys and two girls whom I know, now 



Filial Love 101 

grown up to middle life, the sons and daughters of two 
aged parents who died a few years ago near Cincinnati, 
Ohio. There is not a black sheep in this flock ; every one 
of them is well-to-do in life, a consistent member of the 
Church, a good citizen, honorable in every relation to so- 
ciety, business, and government. They loved their old fa- 
ther and mother, and were faithful and devoted to them 
to the end. A few years ago they held a family reunion, 
and were together for a few days at the old home where 
they were reared. Once, in order to bring back the days 
of childhood, the old folks told the sons to go out and 
work in the fields as of yore, and the mother put the 
daughters about their old-time household tasks. They all 
cheerfully obeyed, and went about their business as when 
they were children, and one of them, in telling me about 
it afterwards, said : "While it drew the tears, it brought 
back the days of youth as naught else could have done, 
and fastened more deeply, if possible, in our hearts the 
never-dying love for father and mother." What a scene 
of filial affection ! What a lesson of life and character, 
formed and perpetuated under the bower of parental au- 
thority and training which under the promise of God 
insures them all a long life — and for practical results 
to the insured is the best insurance policy on earth ! 

The love of the daughter to parents is far more com- 
mon than that of the son. There is nothing on earth 
more attractive than a loving, dutiful daughter; and 
when she is goodly, cultured, and accomplished, she is an 
irresistible power for good, the joy and sunshine of her 
home, the most graceful ornament of church and society. 
Though she may be a shining mark for the Devil's envy, 
and sometimes for the human demon's lust, yet the sav- 
ing clause in the precious qualities of her precious char- 
acter is her invulnerable love for her parents. Break 



102 The Masterwheel 

that "golden bowl" of filial love, and then she is left to 
nothing but a sense of honor, or the motive of fear, for 
her safety; and while these are strong incentives to 
female purity and high purpose, yet where love for the 
authors of our being- — God, father, and mother — is lost, 
there is always danger. The power of love in a child's 
heart must be weakened or overcome by temptation or 
ill treatment before it can ever become the victim of vice 
and go to ruin. 

Love as found in a daughter's heart and manifested 
in a daughter's life is not often surpassed. Many inci- 
dents are known of daughters clinging to depraved, 
drunken fathers when even the wife and mother had 
forsaken them and when their sons would not speak to 
them in public. The story of little Millie is perhaps 
familiar — the only daughter of a besotted father, who 
had broken the heart of his devoted wife and sent her 
to the grave. For weeks Millie had daily been com- 
pelled to fly from the house, thinly clad and shivering in 
the cold, when the beastly parent came home in his 
drunken debauch ; but she would stand outside the door 
and listen and wait till he fell into slumber, and slip back 
to be with him. A friend found her one night asleep 
under the eaves, with the cold rain falling upon her 
frail form, and tried to take her home with him ; but no, 
she would not leave her father. 

One morning he woke up from one of his drunken 
stupors and saw Millie cooking his breakfast, and heard 
her singing a childish song. It touched his hardened 
heart, and for once in almost tender tones he asked: 
"Millie, what makes you stay with me?" "Because you 
are my father, and I love you." "You love me?" he 
murmured; "you love me?" and as he looked at his 
bloated limbs, his soiled and ragged clothes, he contin- 



Filial Love 103 

ued to murmur : "Love me, Millie ? What makes you love 
me ?" "Dear father," said the girl, with swimming eyes, 
"my mother taught me to love you ; and every night she 
comes from heaven and stands by my bed and says : 'Mil- 
lie, don't leave your father ; he will get away from that 
rum fiend some of these days, and then how happy you 
will be!" So he did, and it was his daughter's love 
that saved him. 

O r the precious children of the home — our sons and 
daughters ! What a calamity to family life and to the 
world to see them unlovely and unloving to their parents 
and to one another ! The most dangerous and deadly 
thing is for parents to fail in so loving and training 
their children that they do not love in return nor love 
one another. How perilous to see them loving bet- 
ter any other place or anybody else more than they 
love home or parents or each other ! Preferring any- 
where else but home, any company before that of father 
and mother, is a danger signal and should be promptly 
heeded. A family so bound together by instinct and in- 
terest only, with no bonds of love and affection, is a trav- 
esty upon home and the sacred relation for which that 
word stands. 



LOVE OF BROTHERS AND 
SISTERS. 




E behold, in the accompanying illustration, the 
banquet of love in a group of brothers and 
sisters. They are seated around a table en- 
tertaining each other in conversation, and 
they illustrate not only the possibility but the practica- 
bility of happy and useful life* promoted by charming 
and attractive association at home. They have no 
guests save the dog and the cat that wait upon their 
bounty, but the times should be frequent when they so 
associate and entertain each other. They should often 
play host and guest to each other, as if each were a dig- 
nitary, and thus acquire self-respect, culture, and refine- 
ment, and better fit themselves for social life. 

How beautiful and endearing are all those words 
which have grown out of marriage and the family rela- 
tion ! Lover, husband and wife, father and mother, son 
and daughter, brother and sister — "Home, Sweet 
Home !" How euphonious, musical, and poetical ! The 
very words touch the heart and set the mind upon a 
train of happiest reflections. They have a heavenly 
sound to our ears and fill our hearts with a tender pathos. 
How different and how much harsher are the words 
which express other relations, such as teacher, lawyer, 
doctor, politician, banker, merchant, and the like! 
Words usually have a sound as well as a sense meaning; 
and it is remarkable that words expressing sweet, pure, 
(104) 




Love of Brothers and Sisters 



Love of Brothers and Sisters 107 

noble, lofty, and holy things have a characteristic and 
beautiful orthography. 

We come now to two of those words, brother and sis- 
ter, among the sweetest in the family vocabulary. I 
have sometimes thought that it was unfortunate for a 
family to consist of all boys and no girls, or of all girls 
and no boys; and it is especially sad to see a family in 
which there is only one child, a boy without a girl, or a 
girl without a boy. Of course we cannot help this lot in 
life, as it is fixed by Providence. An only child has ever 
seemed to me unfortunate, both to the child and die 
parent, for the reason that the child is likely to be spoiled ; 
and all the life, love, and anxiety centered by the par- 
ent in one child is not likely to bring so much happiness 
as if shared with many children who multiply ourselves 
and our happiness. I love to see a large family of chil- 
dren, not all boys nor all girls, but well divided between 
the sexes; and if a family has to be small, containing 
only two children, it seems to me that its happiest lot 
will consist in the two being brother and sister. Two 
sisters could love and cherish each other, two brothers 
could do the same; but the sweetest, happiest family I 
have ever known was that of brothers and sisters devoted 
each to the other. Where all the children are brothers 
they are likely to be selfish and unrefined, and the same 
is true when all are sisters ; but when they are divided, 
there is a mutual contact of love by opposite sex in chil- 
dren, as in older people, which counteracts selfishness 
and develops respect and refinement, to be had only by 
this contrasted home relationship. 

Opposite sex in the family, from the standpoint of 
relationship and love among children, is somewhat of 
the same nature as relationship and love in father and 
mother, or in lovers before they are married. Brothers 



108 The Masterwheel 

and sisters are lovers in a tenderer sense than brothers 
and brothers or perhaps than sisters and sisters. As a 
rule, those of the same sex, in any relation of life, never 
love each other as deeply and devotedly as the opposite 
sexes. I have watched brothers and brothers, sisters 
and sisters, and brothers and sisters pretty closely in 
their companionships, and while brothers will fight 
brothers, and sisters will quarrel with sisters — all from 
jealousy, selfishness, and such causes — this condition 
does not equally obtain between brothers and sisters. To 
be sure, there are brothers who do not love their sisters 
and mothers, and sisters who do not love their brothers 
and fathers; but in the average of family life, or in the 
majority of cases, the tie of love is very tender and 
sweet between brother and sister, almost as strong as 
any other tie in life except that between husband and 
wife. 

Some of the sweetest and most lovely scenes of domes- 
tic life are witnessed in the affection and devotion of 
brother and sister. I once knew a family of three broth- 
ers and one sister. She was the idol of her brothers, 
who vied with each other in showing her attention and 
honor ; and there was not a young man in all that town 
whom they regarded as good enough for that sister. 
She was equally devoted to them, sat up and waited for 
them to come home at night, often met them on the 
porch and kissed them as they came in, ministered to 
all their wants, as their mother did, and rejoiced or sor- 
rowed, laughed or wept with them, as they were happy 
or afflicted. She would consult with them about all 
her little matters of social relations, her associates or 
engagements. The brothers likewise advised with their 
sister in similar matters, and it looked as if she were 
their sister queen in family government. She happened 



Love of Brothers and Sisters 109 

to be a superior girl, and even father and mother bowed 
somewhat to her loving supremacy, as did Jacob of old 
to Joseph, but almost any other sister may be the same. 
You will be interested to know what became of her and 
her brothers. She married a splendid lawyer, a Chris- 
tian gentleman who practices in a Southern city, and 
they now have a family of little children, the proper 
fruitage of happy married life, and their happiness is 
enhanced by her culture and former practices in her 
girlhood home. Two of the brothers are also happily 
married, and all three are prosperous, and promise well 
for this life and that to come. 

One of the happiest and most contented couples I ever 
saw was an old bachelor brother and an old maid sister 
who kept house together. They loved each other and 
confided in each other with the utmost consideration and 
attention, and with the most marked affection. Wheth- 
er or not they had been better off in life if they had 
married, Providence alone might answer ; but I am cer- 
tain that such a brother and sister would have made a 
good husband and a good wife if they had found their 
equal in marital partnership. Their life was a waste 
of fine marriage material; but, as brother and sister, 
they did the next best thing with their resources of love 
— they lived together and blessed each other's lives by 
an affection and devotion which exemplified and beauti- 
fied a sweet family relation. 

I have observed a good many instances of love and 
affection between brother and sister. One of the bright- 
est exists in a minister's home between the two children, 
a son and a daughter under fifteen years of age. They 
are the only children, modest, polite, obedient, affable; 
and it is delightful. I have been a guest in this home a 
number of times, but I have never heard a cross word 



110 The Masterwheel 

between them, never saw a frown or evidence of dis- 
pleasure from one toward the other, nor did I see that 
their love for each other ever had a shadow cast upon 
it. At church they both sit with their mother ; and one 
of their pleasantest seasons at home is around the family 
altar or in the study together of their Sunday school les- 
son. Their lives are free from that perversion and cor- 
ruption which so often touch the lives of even the best 
children who visit too frequently or communicate with 
neighboring homes. 

Of course I am aware of the fact that such relationship 
does not exist between brother and sister in every fam- 
ily. There are some families where, with the cat and 
dog life between father and mother, there is the same 
between the children, even between brothers and sisters. 
I lived by a family once where there were two brothers 
and two sisters that played, quarreled, and fought almost 
every day. I think one of the girls had cried every day 
since she was born. Father and mother quarreled and 
sometimes fought at night, or on Sunday; and though 
the children all went to Sunday school, the effect was 
lost by their continual disagreement and their parents' 
bad example. And yet there was a natural, if poorly 
developed, love between these children; though they 
would quarrel and fight among themselves, yet they 
would fight for each other. One day I saw the youngest 
brother attacked and downed by another and bigger boy ; 
an older sister ran out into the street, nearly tore that 
boy into shreds, and sent him howling home to his moth- 
er — bleeding at the nose and otherwise disfigured. I 
could not help admiring that girl's pluck, and I leave 
other people to judge of her discretion and propriety/ 
Those children love each other in spite of their unfa- 
vorable surroundings and development, and as they 



Love of Brothers and Sisters. Ill 

grow up they may, through extraneous influence and 
with better surroundings, become good men and women. 

There are some distinguishing peculiarities between 
a brother's and a sister's love which I wish to notice. 
The brother will not cling to the sister, as will the sister 
to the brother, in misfortune or disgrace. His love, aft- 
er all, is a man's, not a woman's ; and the same peculiar- 
ities which characterize man's love in other relations be- 
long to the brother's love for his sister. He may be 
passionately fond of her and ardently devoted to her, by 
reason of his pride in her beauty and accomplishments, 
her virtue and womanly character ; but let her fall from 
this standard and he is among the first to forsake her. 
He may kill his sister's traducer or offender, but if that 
sister herself falls, his love is blighted or marred by loss 
of respect; and, while he may still protect and care for 
her, he never wants to see her again. The mother would 
not forsake her nor cease to love her. The father might 
feel some compassion for her, and take her back to his 
home; her sister's heart might break; but her proud 
brother seldom or never again can brook the presence 
of his fallen sister. He might excuse his brother and 
stand by him in vice or crime, fight for him right or 
wrong; but his sense of womanly honor and virtue pre- 
sents in his ruined sister her image once angelic so 
marred and blurred as to blot it forever from his vision. 

This fact is strikingly brought out in Robert Brown- 
ing's fine tragedy, "A Blot in the 'Scutcheon," where 
Earl Tresham discovers the sin of his sister Mildred with 
Earl Mertoun. In breaking his discovery to his sister, 
he appeals to her with a brother's love, saying: 

Mildred, I do believe a brother's love 
For a sole sister must exceed them all. 
For see now, only see ! there's no alloy 



112 The Masterwheel 

Of earth that creeps into the perfect'st gold 
Of other loves — no gratitude to claim ; 
You never gave her life, not even aught 
That keeps life — never tended her, instructed, 
Enriched her — so your love can claim no right 
O'er her save pure love's claim : that's what I call 
Freedom from earthliness. . . . 
I think, am sure, a brother's love exceeds 
All the world's love in unworldliness. 

Nevertheless he slew his sister's lover, and saw her die 
upon his own bosom. It was the sting of pride that 
stabbed the honor of a thousand Treshams, whose estate 
and character, through many generations, had never had 
upon them a single stain. 

A sister's love for her brother is different. Women 
too have much of pride, but more of tenderness; they 
too are animated by a sense of respect and honor, but 
they seldom yield to scorn, however much they grieve, 
under misfortune's weight or the blight of disgrace. 
Woman usually stands with a heroic fortitude that puts 
to blush criticism. I have seen the sister minister to the 
wants of the brother in the penitentiary, or cling to him 
on the gallows, or plead for his pardon; and if the cul- 
prit went home, while the world turned its back, there 
was the sister, loyal as the mother or wife, to receive 
him. I think Fry was nearly right when he said: 

No love is like a sister's love, 

Unselfish, free, and pure, 
A flame that, lighted from above, 

Will guide, but ne'er allure. 
It knows no form of jealous fear, 

No blush of conscious guile ; 
Its wrongs are pardoned through a tear, 

Its hopes crowned by a smile. 



Love of Brothers and Sisters 113 

Why this difference in standard for male and female 
honor ? God makes no distinction. The difference can 
be explained only in the fact that- woman is held up to 
God's standard by man, while he lowers his own to the 
level of his baser nature; and even women that cling to 
God's standard of virtue often tolerate the debasement 
of the same standard by man. Let woman hold man to 
the standard he holds for her, and the world will be 
pure and society safe. But whether man can be held 
up to it or not, it would ruin the world to lower the 
standard for mother, wife, or sister. 



LOVE OF HOME 




| HE picture following this page represents the 
birthplace and home of John Howard Payne, 
with a likeness of Payne as a boy. He was 
the author of the immortal song, "Home, 
Sweet Home ;" and I feel that no illustration so impress- 
es upon our minds the sweetness and sacredness of 
Home as the reproduction of Payne's birthplace. Payne 
was a scholar, an editor, and the author of two famous 
plays, "Brutus" and "Charles the Second." He was 
also, during his lifetime. United States consul at Tunis. 
His greatest work was "Home, Sweet Home." 

Perhaps there has been more of poetry, prose, and 
philosophy written upon the subject of home than upon 
any other subject in all the realm of literature. This 
is one place which almost everybody loves, which none 
ever forget, and which calls up the sweetest and most 
sacred recollections of life. We are ever wandering 
back to the scenes of our childhood, youth, young man- 
hood and womanhood that still cluster in memory about 
the old home; and often in age we love to visit again 
and again the spot that gave us birth, where was en- 
shrined that love and virtue, that charm and power, 
which shaped our life and destiny and made us man 
and woman. 

Thirty years after I had left my childhood home, I 
(114) 



Love of Home 117 

went back to the old place, just to see it once more and 
drink the inspiration afresh from childhood memories 
that might be recalled by once familiar scenes. All 
seemed changed except the old house in which I was 
born. The hills were not so tall, the river was not 
so wide, the fields were not so extensive, the orchards 
were dead, the general topography of nature seemed 
diminished. At first I felt disappointed, but as I slept 
one night in the room where I first drew my in- 
fant breath, and where with the other children I 
had slept and played, my mind and heart began 
to revel through the scenes and events of my first 
years. Father and mother were dead, but there they 
sat and talked in the next room. Two brothers were 
gone, and two sisters were in a distant state, but I played 
and pranked with them again about the yard. The 
schoolhouse, the old neighbors and their children, the 
negroes, the animals, the summer corn, and the autumn 
cotton fields, the wild deer in the woods, the whistling 
steamboat on the river, a thousand recollections swarmed 
upon my memory and swept away — while I lived again 
the life of my childhood's home. It did my heart and 
life good; and it would help us all to sweeter life and 
happier homes if we could all occasionally thus live over 
again the days of our childhood. I have always en- 
joyed the pathetic words found in the "Old Oaken 
Bucket" running thus : 

How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, 
When fond recollections recall them to view — 

The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood, 
And every loved spot which my infancy knew ! 

Marriage was God's first institution. It was en- 
shrined in the home, in which not only centers all that 
is good and dear to those who grace the domestic sane- 



118 The Masterwheel 

tuary, but all that is true and most helpful to organized 
society. In the formation of character and in molding 
the destinies of men, the mightiest influence is child- 
hood's home. Here are made the scholars, heroes, 
statesmen, preachers, missionaries, and other great and 
good men who shape the affairs of time and rule the 
world; and that long train of valuable men and women 
who keep the walks of humble life and supply the voca- 
tions essential to human livelihood and progress, are all 
born and bred to virtue and usefulness around the fam- 
ily fireside. As Dr. Hamilton well says: "Even with 
men who have grown reckless and reprobate, and have 
broken all restraints, human and divine, the last cable 
they have been able to snap, the last anchor which has 
dragged, is the memory which moored them to a vir- 
tuous home." Out of the thousands who wander far 
away from virtue and from God, there is no telling how 
many are brought back by the still unbroken cord of love 
tied to conscience and still held in the hands of a pious 
parent, whose life is not forgotten and whose prayers are 
still heard. Some one has said : "The silent influence of 
a pious home is illustrated by the prodigal son. Had 
that home been repulsive to him, or had his father been 
a stern, forbidding man, that recovering thought about 
home would never have visited him." Family religion 
is like the fabulous song of the sea in the shell, to the 
ear of a child when far away from home and God. 

Social, religious, business, political, and national life 
and prosperity are almost wholly dependent upon the 
culture and influence of our home. The family circle is 
the garden in which germinate public virtue and related 
integrity, organic purity and cooperative efficiency, com- 
mercial honor and patriotic devotion, philanthropic spirit 
and Christian character, lofty humanity and world-wide 



Love of Home 119 

fraternity, harmony, peace, and progress. The evil and 
destructive elements of society generally develop out- 
side the home — seldom in it; but everything true, beau- 
tiful and good, great and valuable to the human race 
had there its germ. The average family circle — the 
great majority of homes — either positively or passively 
tends to the elevation of children who grace the social 
circle, attend our schools and colleges, constitute the 
membership of our churches, fill the honorable places 
in business and professional life, maintain good citizen- 
ship and government, and constitute the better elements 
and vital forces of civilization and progress. All our 
great men and good women trace their success and 
glory back to the family circle and family altar. Mrs. 
Sigourney says, "The strength of a nation, especially a 
republican nation, is in the intelligent and well-ordered 
homes of the people." 

The thing essential above all others, and at the bot- 
tom of all home existence and development, is love. 
There may be a family with a place of habitation ever 
so handsome, but without love it is not home ; with love 
it matters not how lowly or humble or poor, it is "home, 
sweet home." The gilded palace of the rich, the but- 
tressed castle of the strong, the splendid court of the 
prince, may have all the appointments which taste and 
luxuries can bestow for pleasure; but the absence of 
love will take all the warmth out of the sparkling grate, 
all the beauty out of the decorations, all the music out 
of the piano and organ, all the softness out of the downy 
bed, all of the gladness out of the smile and laughter and 
company. There may be a temporary forgetfulness in 
the game or the dance or the theater or the wine cup; 
but in the sober moment around the fireside, or at the 
general table, the absence of love will bring back the 



120 The Masterwheel 

somber look, the wrinkled front, or the dropping lip. 
There is no family life, joy, or development there; and 
the palace, the castle, or the court may be a gilded prison 
or a hell instead of a home. Husband and wife, one or 
both, may be saint abroad and devil at home; and the 
children may grow up little demons by association and 
influence, or rise above their surroundings by external 
example, or disgust with their family environment. The 
same may be said of the humble cot or the finer homes 
of middle life. The most miserable place on earth is 
the loveless hut, where in the absence of love are at- 
tendant the additional ills of poverty, ignorance, and 
vice; and many a home in better circumstances is little 
above those of dog and cat, with many a bark and bite 
and spat. 

External conditions have but little to do with happi- 
ness in the home. If poverty, misfortune, or affliction 
comes in at the door and love goes not out at the win- 
dow, then love is true and all is well, however cold the 
wintry blast upon their roof. 

The sweetest and happiest home I know is that of a 
neighbor with his wife and four little boys. They are 
in moderate circumstances, and he is a hard-working 
tradesman. Their home is cozy and clean, supplied with 
every comfort consistent with their means ; their children 
are well-trained, congenial, and happy with each other, 
as shown by their mutual courtesies. They have every 
attraction of books, music, toys, pictures, and apparatus 
for home entertainment ; and twice a day they read their 
Bible and bow about the family altar. The children pre- 
fer the pleasure of the family fireside to bad association 
and playing marbles for "keeps" on the street, where 
the liar, the swearer, the drunkard, and the gambler are 
made. Loving care, consideration, and attention are 



Love of Home 121 

rendered each other. While the children have tempers 
and sometimes disagree and fall out, parental authority, 
with wholesome example, is applied never in haste but 
with gentleness and love. 

One of the happiest and best-ordered homes I ever 
knew was that of a Christian negro and his wife who 
had reared a family of twelve children, eight boys and 
four girls, all of whom had worked together with their 
parents on a little' farm. Some of them had married 
when I saw them last. Following in the footsteps of 
their parents, they seemed to love and respect each other 
very tenderly ; and their home, though humble, was 
orderly and neat, giving evidence of some taste and sense 
of respectability. They were virtuous and hard-work- 
ing people, and no stain had been written upon the 
life and character of their family. There was not a 
black sheep among them, though the skin of all of them 
was as black as the ace of spades. They grew up be- 
fore the war; after emancipation they settled in their 
home on a farm, and to the last of my knowledge had 
maintained their integrity and honor. I have often 
thought that old "Uncle Jake" and "Aunt Sallie ,, were 
about as loving, good, and faithful a married couple as I 
ever knew, and they left behind them the honorable her- 
itage of the best they could do in training up their chil- 
dren to the highest citizenship and greatest usefulness 
of which they were capable. 

I have seen some homes in which love was all-power- 
ful. I saw one such family, poor, ignorant, in distress, 
and requiring help ; father, mother, two grown sons, two 
smaller boys, three grown daughters, and three girls, 
four dogs and two cats, all in one room. Thriftless and 
shiftless, they still loved and clung to each other in their 
despair, their helplessness, and rags; and I thought that 



122 The Masterwheel 

but for love and the attachment born of consanguinity 
there was nothing on earth to hold together such misery 
and wretchedness. They would rather have starved 
than separate or give up one of their number, and it 
would have broken their hearts to part with one of their 
dogs or cats. Better love with nothing else than every- 
thing else without love. 

Naught can take away the sweetness and joy of home 
save the absence of love or the presence of vice. Sick- 
ness, sorrow, pain, and death only sanctify the purity 
and love of home and hallow it. 

Home is the only earthly type of heaven except the 
Church, which is the earthly home of the family of God. 
It is the fortress of the marriage relation, God's first in- 
stitution, the conservatory of every earthly good and 
the hope of heaven. The grandest pair who shall walk 
the golden streets and wear their fadeless crown will be 
the father and mother who reared the largest family 
to love each other and to love God — to bless the world 
while they lived, and people glory at last. What a 
meeting and a greeting that will be, when the redeemed 
parents who presented their children to Christ on earth 
shall be able to present them to the Father — the fruits 
of earthly life, ripe for the home above ! O what a fail- 
ure the loving home on earth that does not help to people 
the home in heaven ! 

And this brings me to another thought. The monu- 
ments of the family graveyard are often precious me- 
mentos of family glory, and the old home, the memento 
of many generations, is the heritage of lives more pre- 
cious than gold. I have visited the spot where an old 
home once stood, and nothing but the graves were left ; * 
but the air was vital still with the sacred voices and 
memories of the generations that had lived and died 



Love of Home 123 

there, or passed out from the old roof to people and bless 
the world. "There," says a stranger passing by, "is 
where so-and-so lived and their fathers before them. 
They were good people and they have left a large pos- 
terity behind them, most of whom are following in their 
footsteps. They loved one another in life and were not 
parted in death." This is the epitaph of the old home 
now gone, as upon many which still survive; and it is 
the most honorable and imperishable inscription upon 
the memory of man of the triumph of love — the love that 
makes the happy and useful home. 

One of the chief charms of the home circle is its hap- 
piness, the elements of which are many and peculiar to 
the family fireside. Here equality and confidence reign, 
and "Hearts are sure of each other." Here we wear 
no mask of guarded reserve, or suspicion, or coldness, 
or policy, which the world often forces us in self-defense 
to wear. Here we are not afflicted with the sense of 
ignorance, inadvertence, or awkwardness, which love 
corrects without ridicule or condones with charity. Here 
the multitude of our sins, frailties, or infirmities is chas- 
tised by a wholesome discipline, and then covered by 
the mantle of forgiveness; and they who are touched 
and exercised thereby yield the peaceable fruits of right- 
eousness in all the beauty and sweetness of domestic 
culture. 




LOVE OF KINSFOLK 







T is said that "blood is thicker than water," 
and hence by consanguinity it is natural that 
kinsfolk should love each other better than 
other people. Especially is this true when 
they are proud of their genealogy. Nothing is more 
delightful to some folks than the "family tree" upon 
which, from root to branch, from trunk to twig, they 
can trace their lineage. Whole volumes have been writ- 
ten to portray family history and display noble ancestry ; 
and it is a very wholesome pride that gives incentive to 
honor and prestige in the life and character of descend- 
ing generations. We have been taught by a humorous 
philosopher to be "more careful about the pedigree we 
go out on than the one we come in on ;" but, nevertheless, 
there is power for good in the consciousness of family 
dignity through honorable ancestry. It is bad to have 
a good pedigree and dishonor it ; but it is good to have 
such a pedigree and sustain it ; it is a still greater thing 
to have a bad pedigree and make it honorable. 

There is something, perhaps, in the idea of good and 
bad "blood." It is often the case that genealogical 
scions shoot amiss of their blood or pedigree; but it is 
a fact that families generally follow the trend of good 
or bad blood long running in their veins. Some people 
are very foolish about their blood. I saw one man who 
had actually gone crazy over his family pedigree ; but all 
(124) 




Love of Kinsfolk. 



Love of Kinsfolk 127 

the same, it is good to have something that stimulates 
family respect and honor, and adds to the conditions 
which promote the love of kindred. It does not make 
any difference of what kind or quality the blood is, just 
so it is the blood of good people, whether in the veins 
of the commoner or the aristocrat ; and I have often been 
struck with the respect and admiration which very poor 
and illiterate people had for their family line. I would 
rather be a good "scrub" descendant from an honorable 
ancestry than to be a bad aristocratic descendant from 
the best blood in the world ; and much of the virtue and 
honor by family descent and relationship is that which 
springs from humble life, and which is constantly re- 
cruiting the ranks of the higher circles of society and 
business. 

Kinsfolk do not always love each other. There are 
grandfather and grandmother, sometimes great-grand- 
father and great-grandmother, still living; and there 
are uncles and aunts, great uncles and aunts, nephews 
and nieces, first, second, and third cousins, and so on 
until kinship practically runs out. All these, whether 
by consanguinity or affinity, we ought to love, and the 
more of them we have to love, and the more we love 
them, the bigger and better our hearts and the happier 
and sweeter our lives. The same blood runs through 
our veins ; and if blood relationship is a bond of kindred 
sympathy and union, we ought to cherish a specific fam- 
ily love for them which we feel for no others. It is a 
noble compliment to manhood when it can be said of 
one that he loves his kinsfolk to the last limit of discov- 
erable relationship; and I never saw a man who did 
not love his kinsfolk that could be trusted to love any- 
body or anything else — not even his country. The old 
clan or tribal affection is the beginning of patriotism; 



128 The Masterwheel 

and it is not inconsistent or selfish in kinsfolk to be 
clannish or devoted to their tribal connections. I have 
always admired the racial enthusiast who is presented 
as standing at the grave of Adam, and weeping over his 
"paternal ancestor;" and the farther and deeper into 
our kindred relations we can extend our pride and love, 
the more love and devotion we have for our race. No 
man is likely to be humane and philanthropic who does 
not love his kinsfolk, no matter how faint the line of 
recognition ; and I will venture the assertion that all the 
great preachers, teachers, missionaries, and lovers of hu- 
manity and of liberty have been great lovers of their 
families and kindred. 

Sometimes kinsfolk fall out and fight and become the 
worst enemies in the world. A family row, next to a 
church row, engenders the most intense hatred, the wid- 
est alienations, and the deepest bitterness. The closer 
kin we are, in blood or religion, the more hate we seem 
to have for each other when we fall out. The tenderer 
and more delicate the relations, the wider apart when 
these ties are broken. It is sometimes astounding to 
see how kinsfolk, even Christians in the same church, 
can become estranged and refuse to make up and love 
each other. I know one church which has been divided 
for forty years into two factions with kinsfolk on both 
sides, who have not spoken to each other for years, all 
about some religious question not worth the attention of 
a lot of schoolboys. "Alas," sometimes, "for the rarity 
of Christian charity" in families and churches ! 

One of the most interesting features in the relation 
of kinsfolk is seen occasionally in communities where al- 
most everybody is akin. When the sky is clear and all 
is peace, such a community presents the most lovable as- • 
pects of human relationship ; but when the seeds of bitter- 



Love of Kinsfolk 129 

ness and alienation are sown in such a neighborhood, 
they engender the fiercest warfare and unhappiness. I 
once knew such a community where for years all was 
love, unity, and harmony. Most of the people belonged 
to the same church, and in all their association and fre- 
quent reunions they were characterized by a common 
family affection and interest that seemed to make them 
one. Everybody was brother, sister, uncle, aunt, cousin ; 
and nobody would ever have dreamed that a cloud could 
arise over that happy valley, destined to gather and vent 
itself in a merciless storm. At last two of the kinsfolk 
fell out about a goose and a pig. One of them killed the 
other's goose for getting into his garden several times ; 
the other killed his neighbor's pig for the same reason, 
in retaliation. They met next day, shot at and wounded 
each other. The whole neighborhood took sides, and 
there were several fights. They never got over it; the 
feud broke up the church, scattered the community, and 
left desolation behind ; yet most of the participants were 
kinsfolk and professed Christians, who once loved one 
another. 

An amusing thing in such a community is that a 
stranger is often in trouble by inadvertent allusion to 
one of his neighbors, in the presence of a relative un- 
known to him. If you throw a stone in any direction, 
you are sure to hit somebody's kin, and it may be his 
kinsman is the man you are talking to. They can hit 
each other, but you dare not do it; and one of the best 
places I know in which to learn just how to control the 
tongue is the neighborhood of kinsfolk, who, though bad 
enough to be talked about by each other, yet are too good 
to be talked about by anybody else. They love their 
family name sometimes better than they love each other. 
"See here," said a friend of mine one day, "that man you 



130 The Masterwheel 

are talking about is my uncle ; and while I have but little 
use for him myself, I can't allow you to criticise him in 
my presence." 

Such is human nature among kinsfolk. Abraham and 
Lot were kinsfolk, uncle and nephew, and yet they dis- 
agreed about their flocks and pastures, and parted com- 
pany. Bound together by the strongest ties of kindred 
and interest, away off in a foreign country and beset 
by dangers, they loved each other too well to fight over 
their property, and so well that by mutual consent they 
separated for each other's good — a far better thing than 
to remain together in strife over property or the "al- 
mighty dollar." The sublimest exhibition of love and 
honor among kindred was that exhibited by the lofty 
Abraham, who gave his nephew the option of taking 
either the left or the right, and he would take his leav- 
ings; and when Lot chose for himself the well-watered 
plain and green pastures along the Jordan valley, with 
the great market of the cities of the plain for his flocks, 
Abraham, in love and sacrifice, remained among the 
bleaker hills about Bethel and Hebron — anything for 
peace with his kinsfolk. And though Lot seems to have 
been actuated by selfishness in his choice of location, 
selecting the best for himself instead of extending the 
option to his uncle and his superior, yet Abraham loved 
his nephew, restored him and his goods when Lot was 
captured by the kings of Damascus, and pleaded with 
God for Lot's sake not to burn up Sodom and Gomorrah. 
This was true kinsfolk love; and Abraham, that noble 
and magnanimous patriarch, thus set the example for 
peace and fraternity among kindred by compromise. 
Were all kinsfolk like Abraham, there would never he 
an alienation, by whatever difference, among the families 
of all the earth. 



Love of Kinsfolk 131 

Some of the most precious and lasting memories re- 
main to us of our relation to kindred. That dear old 
aunt, sometimes the dearest of all kinsfolk, whom we 
used to visit when we were children, and who used to 
come to our homes, was often like a mother to us; and 
there was no sacrifice of toil or gift too good for us 
while she lived and blessed us with her smiles and min- 
istrations of love. That dear old uncle that loved his 
sister and his sister's children, who in return loved him, 
used to be our model and guide in life. What he said 
and did was law and gospel, sometimes even beyond the 
counsel of father and mother ; and when he came to see 
us, or we went to see him, we felt that affection and rev- 
erence, that confidence and respect, that made us realize 
that it was good to walk in his shadow. So of our old 
grandfathers and grandmothers, whose gray hairs and 
tottering steps and tremulous voices, with their sweet 
benedictions and loving-kindness, stamped upon our 
memories the image of patriarchal beauty and glory, and 
impressed upon our lives the dignity and honor of old 
age with all the greater force because related to us by 
kindred ties. Sacred, too, is the thought of many of our 
kindred dead, whose graves cluster in the old family 
burying ground or churchyard, whose relationship was 
sweet to us while they lived, whose life and character 
left an honorable record in the family line, and whose 
reputation and prominence often left an added impulse 
of righteous family pride. 

A difficult problem sometimes occurs in the relation 
of "country cousins" to city society life. We love 
our country cousins and they love us. They always 
make us welcome to their country home and hospitality. 
Out in the country, when we go visiting, it is "cousin," 
"cousin," by the dozen, dozen; but when those cousins 



132 The Masterwheel 

come to the city, however welcome, they sometimes prove 
embarrassing to other social relationships. 

Not long since, in a certain city, a great social occasion 
was announced to take place in a fashionable family. A 
complimentary invitation was sent to a country cousin's 
family — they were of course not expected to be present. 
Nevertheless, when the night came, those country cous- 
ins stepped into the midst of the magnificent festivities. 
Their unsophisticated rusticity was readily apparent by 
their dress and manners, but the country cousins made 
themselves at home in good old country style. "How d'ye 
do, Cousin Johnnie — Cousin Angie ?" asked all the coun- 
try kin; and so the familiar "How d'ye do?" went the 
rounds, as the country cousins shook hands with every- 
body they met. The city cousins were somewhat con- 
founded, but they had to stand it ; and while the splendid 
company were amused, as well as astonished, they had 
the good sense to accommodate themselves to the situa- 
tion. "Cousin Angie," with a woman's sagacity, soon 
found a way to relieve the situation, and without offense 
to the country kin or embarrassment to her fine company 
all went on as merrily as a marriage bell. 

We should love and treat our country cousins as they 
love and treat us. Especially should we honor and ele- 
vate, if possible, our poor and uncultured kin to our 
standard. I have always admired some people, in 
wealth and culture, who stuck to their poor kin, helped 
them in distress, educated their children, put them in 
places of business, entertained them in their homes, and 
were not ashamed to own them in company. The fop 
who slights his mother and sisters when in town because 
not up to his style and culture is an ass of the long-eared 
variety who ought to have his ears cut off. 

One of the most beautiful instances of love to kinsfolk 



Love of Kinsfolk 133 

in poverty and distress is that of Ruth and Naomi. The 
immortal words of Ruth to her mother-in-law, 

Entreat me not to leave thee, 

Or return from following after thee, 

will glow upon the pages of pastoral literature forever. 
Such love not only meets the admiration of man but the 
reward of God ; and she who forsook her home, her coun- 
try, and her gods to follow and help her poor mother-in- 
law not only became the wife of Boaz and the grand- 
mother of David but became a distinguished link in the 
ancestral line of Jesus Christ. 




LOVE OF MASTER AND 
SERVANTS 




UR illustration for this phase of love shows 
the happy relation between the old-time mas- 
ter and the slave in the days "before the war." 
They are shaking hands as the master meets 
Ike and Tildy in the cabin yard where the chickens are 
basking in the sun, young Jim is eating a watermelon, 
and old daddy Joe is sitting by the door. Out in the 
cotton patch Ann and Henry are picking the fleecy bolls, 
and beyond old Jake drives an ox cart. This is only 
a part of the "old plantation" where often all were hap- 
py and contented, where the "old cabin home" was the 
subject of many a poetic song, where the negro spent 
the halcyon nights of yore fiddling, dancing, and telling 
his tales of ghostly wonder, and where chorus and laugh- 
ter made the welkin ring. Not every master was so 
cordial and familiar with his slaves, but there were thou- 
sands who filled the representation in the picture. 

It may be that we shall, after a while, have no use for 
carriage drivers; and it is possible that cooks, porters, 
house servants, waiters, and the like will have their 
places taken by some electrical apparatus, which, by the 
touch of a button, will wash our clothes, make up our 
beds, cook our food, set our tables, sweep our floors, 
brush our windows, put on and take off our garments, 
(134) 



Love of Master and Servants 137 

put us to bed and get us up in the morning — in short, 
do everything for us so to minimize the servant's calling 
that it will be practically abolished. However, the rich 
and the fashionable will never do without servants until 
this takes place; and even then they may desire some 
one to touch the button. Such a state of scientific civi- 
lization would require that all should have money enough 
to buy the apparatus, and that there should be no poor 
people; but this Utopian dream never will be fulfilled 
until we get to heaven, where slavery will be unknown, 
but where service will be the universal condition of life 
and joy. There will be full equality in heaven. There 
we all shall be peers. They only who surpass in service 
shall be greatest. 

In the present state of things, however, there will al- 
ways be some form of servitude or service which one 
human being inferior to another in ability and condition 
will have to render to his superior. Some one said, "It 
is a common law of nature, which no time will ever 
change, that superiors shall rule their inferiors;" and 
Byron said : "The many still must labor for the few. It 
is nature's doom." We read of no slave or servant be- 
fore the flood, but there may have been such ; and since 
that period in every age and country, the superior has 
risen above the inferior, wealth has dominated poverty, 
and learning ignorance ; the weaker and the poorer have 
been the slave and the servant. Japheth has always 
dwelt in the tents of Shem, and Canaan has been his 
servant. Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindoo, Greek, Ro- 
man, Jewish, and all the history of all the nations of the 
earth, is full of the servitude of the slave and the service 
of the servants. At the time of Alexander Athens had 
a population of 18,000 freemen and 400,000 slaves. It 
is only in very recent times that slavery has been tech- 



138 The Masterwheel 

nically abolished, while the service of the servant, which 
is often as much as ever it was real slavery, still abides. 
In some form the master is still on top, while the servant 
is at the bottom. The tyranny, the cruelty, and the 
villainy perpetrated upon the slave and the servant by 
emperors, kings, nobles, aristocrats, and snobs, by mas- 
ters of every degree, in the history of this world would 
fill one of the blackest volumes ever written by the pen 
of any of mankind. Throughout the brutal rule of un- 
righteous masters, servitude has been the sum of all 
villainies. In spite of all the laws of civilized nations 
regarding the relation between master and servant, the 
relation has been hardest to regulate and its abuse has 
been hardest to punish. The Roman master reached 
the point where he could kill his slave in order to wash 
his feet in his blood after a hard day's hunt; and poor 
slaves and servants in almost every age have been the 
victims of treatment far worse than that of animals. 

In the Bible we find the relation of master and slave, 
or master and servant, regulated by the word of God, 
and so far as slavery is concerned, abolished by the 
spirit, if not by the letter, of the gospel. There was the 
"bond servant" and the "hired servant;" and whether 
bond or free in service, the apostle Paul lays down the 
beautiful rule to be observed by both master and servant, 
as follows: "Servants, be obedient unto them that ac- 
cording to the flesh are your masters, with fear and 
trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ ; not 
in the way of eye service, as men pleasers, but as serv- 
ants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; 
with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not 
unto men : knowing that whatsoever good thing each 
one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the 
Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do 



Love of Master and Servants 139 

the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: 
knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, 
and there is no respect of persons with him." The 
apostle is addressing, of course, Christian masters and 
Christian servants; and out of all this beautifully put 
law of relationship and duty between the two, we can 
clearly infer that love — love to God and slave, love to 
God and master — was absolutely essential to the execu- 
tion of the mutual obligation. The service of the serv- 
antto his master must be as unto God, with the spiritual 
reward to his conscientious discharge of duty; and the 
treatment of the master to his servant must be as unto 
God, with the promise of spiritual reward to his con- 
scientious discharge of duty. There is no difference be- 
tween master and servant with our Master who is in 
heaven; and without an eye single to God and without 
a desire merely to please or be pleased, neither master 
nor servant can fulfill the divine law which regulates 
and promises to bless the relation between them. Hence 
no man can be a true master and no man can be a true 
servant unless he is a Christian, and in love trying to 
fulfill this law of relationship with its promises. 

I have been struck with the example of the centurion 
who came to Christ in order to have a favorite servant 
healed, one whom he evidently loved. Christ would have 
gone to his house to perform the miracle, but the centu- 
rion, while he believed in Christ and his power to heal, 
objected that he was not worthy of such honor as the 
Master's visit, and asked him only to speak the word, 
and it was done as he asked and the servant was healed. 
Here was a model master with a model faith, and we 
may be sure a model servant. It was not a matter of 
dollars and cents, else faith had cut no figure and the 
healing had never been performed. It was the love for 



140 The Masterwheel 

a slave, found in a faithful master's heart to whose faith 
Christ paid the highest of compliments. 

One of the finest illustrations of loving regard and 
treatment to a slave, one who had run away from his 
master, is found in Paul's letter to Philemon regarding 
Onesimus, who was converted under Paul's ministry in 
Rome and ministered, like a faithful servant, to the ne- 
cessities of the apostle also in bonds. He wrote to Phi- 
lemon to forgive Onesimus and receive him as a brother, 
and no longer a servant or slave ; and the apostle agrees 
that if Onesimus had wronged the master by absence 
from service, and owed him anything, he himself would 
repay it. Paul evidently meant that Philemon should 
let him go free; and having lost him as a slave and a 
servant "for a season," that he should have him back 
forever — "no longer as a servant, but more than a serv- 
ant, a brother beloved." This is the spirit of the gospel 
that makes the slave our brother by conversion, and in 
setting him free from the shackles of sin he ought to be 
free from the bonds of his master. This is the spirit of 
love — love that could make happy and profitable the re- 
lation between master and slave ; and then, rising above 
and going beyond that relationship, could say to the 
master : "Let your brother go free, then hire him if you 
like for your servant and still treat him as your brother 
under God." 

I used to see something of this spirit when I was a 
boy, before the Civil War, where the relation of master 
and slave existed. Some of the happiest people I ever 
saw were slaves under good Christian masters who 
housed, fed, clothed, and treated them upon the principle 
of relationship laid down by Paul. Many of those slaves 
were Christians, pure, virtuous, honest, who went sing- 
ing their songs all the day, and who went to church on 



Love of Master and Servants 141 

Sunday; and I knew some of the old negro fathers who 
had their family altars and worship, or who went to the 
master's parlor and worshiped with the white family. 
They loved each other with a tender sympathy, and, as 
far as the relation went, sought each other's interest. 
I have often heard my mother and Aunt Betsy, my old 
"black mammy," talk about Jesus, and seen them shed 
tears together. That old black woman still lives, nearly 
eighty years old, and I never meet her that she does not 
put her arms around my neck, kiss, and weep over me 
like a child. I have seen my mother minister and weep 
over the negro children, badly hurt or sick; and I have 
often thought she felt toward them next to her own chil- 
dren. The negro boys were my best friends, those with 
whom I grew up, and I never go to Atlanta and fail to 
visit the capitol building where "Henry" plays the part 
of porter, and who, when he sees me, greets me as the 
best friend he has in the world. So of the other boys, 
now grown old, when and where I meet them. The 
whole secret of all this lies in the fact that love ruled the 
former relation of master and slave, and made us, though 
one was black and the other white, friends while we live. 
All this was not true in every case, perhaps not in a 
majority of cases ; and mean masters not only made mean 
slaves and servants, but brought slavery into a state of 
inhumanity and odium in many places. Large planta- 
tions with great numbers of slaves, run by brutal over- 
seers and watched by "patrollers," never came under the 
rule of a Christian master ; and fear, hatred, eye service 
and the spirit of revenge and insubordination lurked be- 
neath the sullen submission of thousands who had no 
heart in their toil and no love for their master. In spite 
of all this, however, there was the general good will 
and the spirit of love which prevailed in the ranks of 



142 The Masterwheel 

slavery in the South toward the white people, down to 
the close of the war, 1861-65; and there is not another 
such exemplification of the fact in all the history of the 
world as seen in the devotion of the negroes to their 
white people, especially the women and the children, 
during that period, who were left helpless in their hands, 
while their masters were on the battlefield striving to 
keep them in servitude. We owe the debt of love and 
gratitude to those negroes, who, in the relation of master 
and slave, under the most trying and tempting condi- 
tions, remained faithful to their owners until emanci- 
pated by the law of the nation. I love those old negroes 
next to a Confederate veteran, and I never meet one that 
does not show that he loves me. And if we would but 
give them a better chance, they would still be our loyal 
friends and generally maintain their proper relations. 

By all this I do not mean to advocate slavery. It was 
a curse in its best relationship of master and slave, to the 
white people themselves ; and in the mass it was a curse 
to the negro, made so largely by the slavery agitation 
that drove the master to watchful scrutiny and severity 
in order to protect the institution. I am glad that slav- 
ery has been abolished, for the good of my country, es- 
pecially the South, and for the good of Southern socie- 
ty, which, while it depended upon slavery, lost in the 
slough of luxury and ease the progressive spirit and en- 
terprise which now characterize the "New South," ani- 
mated by a new impulse and clad in new armor for the 
great battle of her own emancipation and elevation, 
which she is rapidly achieving. We no longer have the 
negro for a slave ; but we have him as a citizen, a laborer, 
and largely as a servant; and with him we get along 
in these relations about as well as any other people in 
like relations. We love him better than any other peo- 



Love of Master and Servants 143 

pie love him in the world, notwithstanding all the mis- 
representation of false sentiment by designing dema- 
gogue and politician; and, if the negro but knew it, he 
loves us better than he loves any other people in the 
world. We are his best friends, occasional lynching for 
certain reasons to the contrary notwithstanding. 

There are forms of human servitude worse than slav- 
ery — much worse than the average negro slavery in the 
old South. Millions of poor girls working for a pittance 
in stores, shops, offices, and factories, particularly in the 
North, are subjected to ill treatment and temptations 
which are, because of general prevalence, worse for 
womanhood and worse for the economic and moral inter- 
ests of our country than any of the evils of ante-bellum 
slavery. On a recent visit to New York I went through 
one of the great department stores of that city. In con- 
versation with a lady, at the head of one of the depart- 
ments, I learned about the salaries paid to the girls em- 
ployed ; they were too small to support them, and the lady 
complacently informed me that many of them were so 
poorly paid that they "had to go astray' in order to live 
and possibly support a dependent mother and little chil- 
dren. This, in my opinion, is worse than any form of 
slavery this or any other country has ever known. 

Another piece of slavery and servitude in this coun- 
try is the compulsion of men and women to work at night 
and on Sunday. The railroad, the street car, the Sun- 
day park restaurant, some of our stores and factories, 
some places of amusement, rob the laborer of his Sunday 
rest, worship, and family relations; and whether it is 
hard and unremunerative toil or not, it is a specious 
tyranny enacted by law, over our time, our religion, our 
family duties, our divinely ordained recreation, our so- 
cial relations, our individual culture, over every legiti- 



144 The Masterwheel 

mate interest of body, mind, and soul, dependent upon 
God's gracious gift of our nights for sleep and of the 
Sabbath for rest. You say this is a free country, and 
men and women can work or not, but this is a mistake. 
In this age of machinery and monopoly, men and women 
must have employment at a specific trade, labor, or busi- 
ness ; and they are as much forced to terms, in laboring 
at night and on Sundays, as if they were arrested and 
put in the chain gang to work on the streets. It is 
compulsory servitude, without love in the master and 
without love in the slave; and much of the demoraliza- 
tion, disease, irreligion, infidelity, and general looseness 
of our life arises from this form of practically compulsive 
labor. 

The very existence of class monopoly and millionaire 
preponderance of the few over the many is an evidence 
of servitude upon the part of the servant and the laborer, 
who make the monopolist and the millionaire what they 
are. "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be inno- 
cent," says the Lord ; and they who get so "big rich" in so 
short a time must wring their millions out of the servitude 
of the masses, as much as did the Pharaohs who built the 
pyramids and storehouses of Egypt out of the galling 
slavery of the Hebrews. The masters of this country 
are the millionaires and the monopolists, and the labor- 
ers, the tradesmen, the farmers, the small merchant, the 
toiling girls and women whose labor makes for them their 
millions are the servants — compelled to work for what 
they get, or tramp or starve. Talk to their masters about 
the Ten Commandments or the golden rule, and they 
tell you that ethics and religion have no more applica- 
tion to the business method of monopoly than they do to 
politics ; and, as a rule, they have no more Christian love 
for their employees, who are in fact if not in name their 



Love of Master and Servants 145 

servants or slaves, than they have for the Devil; and 
vice versa. To be sure, some of these monopolist mas- 
ters are Christians and give large sums to colleges, li- 
braries, asylums, homes, and other educational or elee- 
mosynary institutions ; but it is poor charity which gives 
even millions — so earned. About the only way such 
wealth ever gets back to the people who created it by 
their toil and servitude is by the death of the monopolist 
and the dissipation of his worthless children. It is a 
blessed thing that some of the monopolistic or millionaire 
masters do not live to be as old as Methuselah. If they 
did, they would own the world and turn it over to a 
syndicate to operate as they now do railroads, coal oil, 
and the tin plate factories. 
10 



LOVE OF ANIMALS 




|OME years ago I visited old Brother Brandon, 
a Baptist preacher, who lives near Christiana, 
Tenn., and who cultivates a large farm and 
owns a considerable number of stock. One 
morning he asked me to go with him to his pasture and 
see him salt his cattle. When we arrived in the middle of 
the field he gave a peculiar call, and to my astonishment 
there came running from every quarter horses, mules, 
cows, hogs, sheep, goats, and every other animal 
known to the farm, all gathering about the old master 
in the most gleeful and frolicsome way. He loved them, 
and salted them, and they seemed to love and appreciate 
him, and to have no antipathy for each other. My pic- 
ture is somewhat exaggerated in the race of the animals 
for the master ; but the scene at the time forcefully struck 
me as an illustration of love and kindness for animals, 
and their affection for those who treat them mercifully. 
In the chapter to which this picture belongs there are 
other illustrations of a more specific nature; but this is 
an illustration of congregational affection for and by 
different animals. 

The last thing in the line of domestic life and relation- 
ship is the animal that comes within the pale of our use 
and care. The old home is not complete without its 
complement of dogs, cats, cows, horses, sheep, goats ; its 
(146) 



Love of Animals 149 

chickens, geese, turkeys, guinea fowls, peacocks, ducks; 
its birds, deer, rabbits, and other animals captured and 
tamed for the purpose. Man is an animal himself, a 
religious animal of superior order, and he has a great 
affinity for animals of the lower order. Sometimes, ac- 
cording to his peculiar taste or fancy, he cultivates alli- 
gators, snakes, tarantulas, bugs, and other species of 
the reptile and insect world; and it is often wonderful 
to behold the charm which the most dangerous and hid- 
eous species of the animal kingdom have for some peo- 
ple. The fish of the sea and of the streams also come 
in for a share of our affection and care; and in many 
of our homes their golden or silver sides flash in beauti- 
ful aquariums made for their comfort and preservation. 
It would be hard to find an animal, reptile, or insect, 
that some man has not taken a special fancy for; and, 
as we all know, the naturalist is a loving enthusiast over 
almost every form of animal creation. In accord with 
the popular sentiment created by the love of animals laws 
have been enacted, altogether prohibiting the destruction 
of some species, or at special times protecting others for 
game and sport. Our zoological gardens contain many 
species of animal, bird, fish, reptile, and insect, for the 
study and pleasure of those interested in the animal 
creation. The animal occupies a large place in the in- 
terest, happiness, and affection of most people; and the 
naturalist, the poet, the artist, the humanitarian, and the 
legislator for the information and delight of civilized 
man have devoted volumes to the study and protection 
of the brute. 

The animal in some form of beast, bird, or reptile, 
real or fabulous, appears in the heraldic designs of nearly 
all the nations of earth. The British lion, the unicorn 
of Scotland, the red dragon of Wales, the Russian bear, 



150 The Masterwheel 

the eagles of France and other countries, our own proud 
bird of liberty, indicate the impress of animal peculiar- 
ities and life upon national genius and character. It is a 
fact that man embraces in his own nature almost every 
trait of the animal, which demonstrates his analogy to, 
if not his evolution from, the brute creation. How sig- 
nificant is the spirit of the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the 
fox, the hog, as their animal characteristics appear in 
human life ! We speak of the lion-hearted Richard, the 
eagle-spirited Elijah, the dovelike John, the lamblike 
Redeemer ; and not only in national emblem and individ- 
ual character do animal traits find their likeness, but the 
Bible represents the divine attributes in their symboliza- 
tion of wisdom, power, patience, and swiftness, respect- 
ively set forth in the composite form of a living creature, 
with the head of a lion, the head of an ox, the head of 
an eagle, with that of a man, all having wings. 

What a prolific theme is the animal in the Bible! 
Herod was called a "fox," and the devil is represented 
as the "serpent" and the "dragon." David tells of the 
little swallows that made their nests about the altars of 
the tabernacle, of the fleet hind on the mountain, of the 
bulls of Bashan; and he designates the mighty wicked 
by the figures of the lion, the bear, and the dog. "Be- 
ware of dogs," is the language of the Saviour, who also 
says: "Cast not your pearls before swine," and "give not 
that which is holy unto dogs." God makes a special 
law, in his rainbow covenant with Noah, for the protec- 
tion of animal, as of human, life; and he requires no 
more the life of every man at our hands than he does 
the life of every animal. The master is to care for the 
ox that lows for food; and even upon the Sabbath day 
he is to pull him out of the ditch. Some animals are 
for service, some for food, some for show, and all of 



Love of Animals 151 

them are God's creatures, put here for his purpose and 
for our good. He observes the sparrow's fall, he 
clothes the sheep of the field, he hears the young raven's 
cry. The same providential affection and care which 
God shows to his animal creatures, he demands of us; 
and one of the greatest sins against God is man's abuse 
of animals. When we stand before the judgment God 
will call us to account for every neglect or ill treatment 
of the animal. He cites to us sometimes the wisdom 
and providence of the animal, such as that of the "stork" 
and the "little conies;" and, if for no other purpose, it 
seems that many animals are given us for their charms 
of beautv or for their lessons of instinct. 

One of the best evidences of humanity and religion is 
man's love for animals ; and if there is a civilized human 
being neglectful to any degree of such love, he ought 
by all means to read that little volume entitled "Black 
Beauty," which is simply the biography of a horse that 
had been both well and badly treated, and knew how to 
instruct us by means of "horse sense," on the subject of 
animal culture. The greatest and most useful animal 
in the service of man is the horse, whether for peace 
or war, for profit or pleasure, for utility or sport; and 
for the combination of good sense and qualities akin 
to man, perhaps no animal is superior to the horse. The 
man that owns and uses a good horse and does not love 
him does not properly love himself; and the man who 
will starve or overwork such a horse is fit only for the 
penitentiary. The horse is susceptible of great friend- 
ship and devotedness for the master that understands, 
loves, and properly cares for him; and the man whose 
horse is an enemy to him has no true friend among men. 
Some people take good care of their horses, as a matter 
of profit or policy, who have no particular love for them ; 



152 The Masterwheel 

but if he is indifferent in love for his horses, he is in- 
different in that affection toward his fellows, and so of 
his fellows toward him. The Pennsylvania Dutchman, 
from whom Lee's cavalry took a fine horse, went weep- 
ing and begging for the restoration of the animal. He 
said that he loved it better than he did his own wife and 
children ; but evidently the value of his horse was a mat- 
ter of property only. Really he loved the horse no more 
than he loved his family; and it is likely, as he loved 
neither, so neither horse nor family loved him. The 
most stringent laws in many States and countries have 
been passed, through the efforts of humane societies, to 
prevent and punish cruelty to animals, especially to 
horses; and if there is a man that deserves the scorn 
of his fellows and the punishment of his government, it 
is the loveless and cruel wretch who abuses the good 
horse he owns, because it cannot defend itself. 

So of the dog, the only unselfish friend that never 
proves treacherous or unfaithful. Whether rich or 
poor, prince or peasant, the dog stands by his master, 
defends him in trouble, and will kiss the hand that 
smites him, or that is too poor to give him bread. His 
love is as constant as the needle to the pole ; and he would 
lie down by his friendless master, guard him in starva- 
tion, and starve with him. Often he will lie by the 
grave where his master is buried, faithful even unto 
death. The dog, by association and culture, has at- 
tained many of the traits and much of the intelligence 
of man ; and of whatever breed or species, he is among 
the most useful creatures, as well as the best companion 
of man. He manifests an anxiety to serve his master, 
and about the home he seems to understand that he is 
its guardian and protector. He never sleeps too sound- 
ly for the enemy's approach, and at all times he is ready 



Love of Animals 153 

for the master's bidding. He will work as faithfully to 
the cart as will the horse or the ox, and when at rest 
he will lie by the vehicle he draws and defend it from 
the approach of all intruders. 

Never marry a man who does not love a dog, nor a 
woman that hates a cat. Of course there are too many 
dogs, and there are vicious and sheep-killing dogs that 
ought to be killed as well as legislated against; but the 
man who would illtreat his good dog, one of the best 
friends he has in the world, would be mean to his wife 
and children and betray his human friends. He is 
meaner than a dog, and to call some men a dog is a 
slander upon the canine family. At the present time the 
dog has developed almost into an educated gentleman, 
and can boast of an aristocratic pedigree among many 
of his species ; and often he is among the finest perform- 
ers in the shows, the proudest protege of many of the 
best families, and rides out with the ladies in the finest 
carriages ! The great love and favor bestowed upon the 
dog is one of the signs of the times, if not an evidence of 
civilization; and one of our household songs is entitled, 
"Old Dog Tray," of whom the author says : 

Old Dog Tray is ever faithful, 

He is gentle and he's kind ; 

A better, better friend you'll never, never find 

Than Old Dog Tray. 

What may be said of our love for horses and dogs may 
be said of other animals. The pastoral spirit loves the 
sheep of the field ; and perhaps there was never greater 
affection felt or shown by any being than by the shepherd 
for his sheep, or by the sheep for the shepherd, so beau- 
tifully portrayed in the poetry and song of every age 
and country, and so significantly set forth in some of the 
parables of Christ, who called himself the "Good Shep- 



154 The Masterwheel 

herd," and Christians the "sheep" of his pasture. David 
never sang sweeter than when he said: 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want ; 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, 
He leadeth me beside the still waters. 

The beautiful strain is taken from the figure of the 
human shepherd, who loves his flock and provides for 
their sustenance, comfort, and rest. So the noble farm- 
er loves his lowing herd that "winds slowly o'er the lea ;" 
he works them with mercy, houses them in winter, feeds 
them when hungry, and waters them when thirsty. One 
of the last questions a dying farmer asked his boy was 
this: "My son, have you fed the horses? Have you 
turned in the cattle? Have you looked after the pigs?" 
When the boy had answered in the affirmative, the faith- 
ful and loving father turned to his spiritual matters, and 
after a few words passed away. The faithful house- 
wife loves the fowls in the yard, and she is almost as 
much affected by the cry of a young chicken as by the 
cry of a child. The crowing of roosters, the cackling 
of hens, the gobbling of turkeys, the squawking of pea- 
cocks, the "poterack" of guineas, are all music to the 
lover of domestic fowls ; and when I was a boy I thought 
an old hen that tried hard to sing made the poorest at- 
tempt of any bird at music ; yet my mother thought she 
was a pretty songster. Some women, and men too, do 
love chickens most dearly. 

Thousands of people love pet birds and animals, and 
are devoted to them. This is especially true of married 
people who have no children. I often feel deep sym- 
pathy for such people when I see them making more 
of their pets than people who have children do of their 
own offspring. Many of our good women are affection- 
ate beyond degree toward their canaries, parrots, mock- 



Love of Animals 155 

ing birds, and other of the little feathery tribe that make 
music about the house, or delight us with the beauty of 
their form and plumage. 

Some people love all sorts of pets. I read of a lady 
in a certain city who kept two tamed tigers in her back 
yard ! Horrors, I thought when I read the article, who 
would go to see such a lady, and what else could live on 
the premises? But when the account told how, by lov- 
ing-kindness and singular mastery over their ferocious 
nature, she had trained them from little cubs, and had 
made them as docile as kittens, my hair that stood on 
end came down, and the cold chills that ran up and down 
my spinal column changed into the warmth and glow of 
wonder and admiration for the power of love and disci- 
pline that had conquered the fiercest beasts of the forest. 
Many people love snakes as pets — I do not; but the 
charm of some of them over these venomous reptiles is 
wonderful. I saw a negro once who could catch them 
wild, put them in his pockets and take them out at pleas- 
ure; but the peculiarity of the fool consisted in the fact 
that, if they bit him, they did not hurt him any more 
than if they had bitten a hog, which is snake proof. Of 
course he could pet and play with snakes whether he 
loved them or not; and when it comes to the love of 
snakes, alligators, terrapins, lizards, and tarantulas, 
there I stop. I have seen young ladies perfectly devoted 
to chameleons (biped and quadruped), but I close with 
the high and more benevolent animals. There is no tell- 
ing what love, with the proper training, will do in over- 
coming even the venom and ferocity of reptiles and ani- 
mals; but I am certain that I have no affection or tact 
that would be successful over the disposition of serpents 
and hyenas. I never much liked a "pet pig;" but some 
years ago my respect was very much raised toward the 



156 The Masterwheel 

genus swine by observing the sagacity and intelligence of 
an educated hog in a show, where he performed a num- 
ber of clever tricks. I always despised fleas; but to my 
surprise I saw the show of an enterprising flea trainer 
in New York who drilled them to military performances, 
in which they marched in ranks and had muskets on their 
shoulders. This was getting down, infinitesimally, far- 
ther down than I could go, and I gave it up. 

It is a great thing to love, to love animals and birds, 
even reptiles and insects. I have known several persons 
so tender in their affections and sensibilities that they 
would not tread upon a spider, or kill a wasp, or stop the 
course of a serpent. Their idea was that the least and 
worst are God's creatures ; and that in the enjoyment of 
their life and happiness, they should not be killed or 
disturbed. This sort of sentiment might seem over- 
scrupulous to most people, and wrong to those who think 
that the venomous and ferocious of God's creatures 
should be destroyed ; but it presents a high type of civi- 
lized affection and consideration for the animal creation. 
It is infinitely better than that beastly and reckless spirit 
of sport which, for the gratification of a bloody appetite, 
goes about slaying the beautiful birds of the forest, that 
could be spared for the pleasure and taste of the aesthetic 
eye and the loving heart. I was struck with a sea cap- 
tain once, on board of his vessel, when a beautiful sea 
bird perched on one of the masts. A fellow whipped 
out his gun and attempted to shoot the bird, when the 
captain exclaimed: "Hold! I would not have you shoot 
at that beautiful creature for a hundred dollars. They 
often light upon our masts, because no one ever molests 
them ; and we love to see them and have them drop down 
among us." That was humanity with a sense of the % 
beautiful, accompanied with a love for God's creatures; 



Love of Animals 157 

it was a severe rebuke to the senseless brute that wanted 
to kill the bird, and a wholesome lesson to all who appre- 
ciated the captain's benevolence. Let us all have the 
heart of the sea captain. Some people have not the heart 
to kill the chickens they eat. We need not be chicken- 
hearted, but better this than beastly-hearted in that 
wanton pleasure that needlessly and cruelly makes havoc 
of animal life. 



LOVE OF AGRICULTURE 




of 



HE man plowing in the field, his home in the 
distance, his wife bringing him water, his no- 
ble span of horses, with all the surroundings 
of nature and art, form a most noble picture 
civilization. He is breaking the soil, the fallow 
ground, from which springs the support of the world, 
and without which the wheels of commerce would stop 
and mankind would perish. Take that man and his 
plow from the soil, and ere long there would be no men 
left. I am proud of the man with the plow. He repre- 
sents every element in human sustenance and progress, 
and I scorn the wretch that looks down upon him or 
does not appreciate him. 

I shall ever be thankful that I learned to labor on the 
farm — how to live in the sweat of an honest face — and 
to relish the fact that in response to virtuous toil Provi- 
dence and Nature always make an adequate return, an 
equitable reward. There w^ere no short cuts to riches 
and honor upon the farm, no political tricks or business 
devices which hastened fortune without innocence; but 
with trust in God and with plodding industry, we 
reached legitimate compensation with contentment and 
happiness. We read the books of nature and revela- 
tion, and we grew in grace and strength of body, mind, 
and heart, according to the slow but sure development 
of country culture and religion. We had the earth for 
(158) 



Love of Agriculture 161 

our dwelling place, the blue sky for our canopy, the sun, 
moon, and stars for our candles, the woods and flowers 
for our companions, the birds and the breezes for our 
music, the beasts for our helpers. As we toiled we sang, 
as we ate we gave thanks, as we slept we rested, as we 
woke we were refreshed, and when the Sabbath day 
came we worshiped. We had only the "old-time re- 
ligion ;" and whether rich or poor, learned or unlearned, 
we rolled logs together, reaped the fields together, 
shucked out the corn together — all without much, if 
any, social distinction. Peaceful, honest, hardy, happy 
old days, ye are gone forever, except in memory; but it 
was good to begin life, if not to follow it, on the old 
plantation. 

Agriculture is an absolute and fundamental necessity. 
Everything in commerce and manufacture, in peace and 
war, in progress and prosperity, depends upon the farm 
and the farmer. No alchemist has yet discovered the 
manufacture of food and clothing from the elements of 
nature. Let the famine and the drought come, and all 
else perishes. As Lord Chatham said : "Trade increases 
the wealth and glory of a country, but its real strength 
and stamina are to be looked for among the cultivators 
of the land." Paralyze the hand of the farmer, and you 
paralyze the world ; and if there is a human being under 
heaven whose interests should be protected, supported, 
and honored at the hands of the government, it is the 
farmer. The system of speculation which "corners" 
the necessities of life, and cheats the producer of them 
out of the value of his hard-earned labor — a labor 
whose productions are absolutely essential to every oth- 
er interest — is the most criminal and accursed form of 
business in the world. It is anathematized of God, and 

should be most severely restricted and punished at the 
11 



162 The Masterwheel 

hands of civil authority. Corn and cotton, meat and 
bread, wool and flax, sugar and coffee — these and the 
like of these are the sacred gifts of the honest sweat of 
the producer, and he that would rob the reaper of his 
fields, or "corner" a market against his crops, will cer- 
tainly find a "corner" in hell, if not a cell in the peniten- 
tiary. All labor is honorable, and ought to be respected 
and protected against the wiles and power of monopoly 
and combination; but the labor of the agriculturist is 
back of all other labor and life, and has been pronounced 
sacred of God himself. 

The value and dignity of agriculture from an ethical 
point of view have been nobly characterized by Lord John 
Russell, who says: "In a moral point of view the life 
of the agriculturist is the most pure and holy of any 
class of men; pure because it is the most healthful, and 
vice can hardly have time to contaminate it, and holy 
because it brings the Deity perpetually before the view, 
giving him thereby the most exalted notions of supreme 
power, and the most fascinating and endearing view of 
moral benignity." The bone and sinew in every depart- 
ment of life, business, and profession, either lives in the 
country or comes from the country, and vice and crime, 
irreligion and infidelity have but little origin or hold in 
the rural precincts. Our merchants, manufacturers, 
lawyers, doctors, bankers, teachers, preachers, politi- 
cians, judges, statesmen, were generally born on the 
farm or sprang from country ancestors; and a large 
portion of the wealth, intelligence, piety, purity, and 
manhood of our cities has a rural origin. The great 
recruiting force of our civilization and religion con- 
sists in country brawn, brain, and hearts, and as fast as 
city society goes to seed or decay it is invigorated or 
renewed from country blood, nerve, and purity. "If 



Love of Agriculture 163 

country life," said Ruffini, "be healthful to the body, it 
is no less so to the mind;" and Alcott said: "I consider 
it the best part of an education to have been born and 
brought up in the country." The same writer says 
again: "There is virtue in country houses, in gardens 
and orchards, in fields, streams, and groves, in rustic 
recreations and plain manners, that neither cities nor 
universities enjoy." The awful problems of life are 
often presented, and seem hard of solution in the city. 
The moral ends of our being are revealed amid strug- 
gles and conflicts in which evil sometimes seems certain 
of mastery over good, but the country soothes and re- 
freshes us, supplies us with moral and religious forces, 
and continually lifts us to courage and hope by the in- 
fusion of its strength and reclaiming power. 

Let us realize the dignity of agriculture, and love it 
for its infinite value to the manhood and womanhood 
of every rising generation. Daniel Webster said : "The 
farmers are the founders of civilization;" and Thomp- 
son numbered among them 

The kings and awful fathers of mankind. 

"Agriculture, for an honorable and high-minded man," 
says Xenophon, "is the best of all occupations and arts 
by which men procure the means of living;" and Beecher 
said : "He who would look with contempt upon the farm- 
er's pursuit is not worthy the name of man." 

Let all the world love the country and the farmer, 
and let the farmer love and magnify his calling. Of all 
the men who ought to be good, generous, noble, liberal, 
and useful, the agriculturist is under the deepest obliga- 
tion. He may not be so educated and refined as the city 
people, but he ought to be better and nobler. A mean, 
stingy, useless, or vicious farmer certainly never looks 



164 The Masterwheel 

up to the heavens above or around him to the wide and 
beautiful expanse of nature. He has everything to 
broaden and uplift his soul ; and in his independence and 
freedom of spirit he has the greatest reasons for glorify- 
ing God and for blessing the world in which he lives, 
because of his gracious and bountiful gifts. To no hu- 
man being are earth, air, and water so free and pure; 
and to no mortal is nature so lavish of her music, her 
beauty, her grandeur, her health, vigor, and virtue. An 
undevout farmer, like an undevout astronomer, is mad — ■ 
or, if not mad, exceedingly bad. No other human being 
has such reasons to thank God or to supplicate the di- 
vine help, since all his bounties and blessings come di- 
rectly from God. 

One benefit of farm life is the pleasant and pure neigh- 
borhood relationship which usually prevails. I do not 
mean to say that everybody is good in the country, or 
that peaceful and happy relations always exist. There 
are some bad people and some mean neighbors in the 
country, as in the city, but generally the wider separation 
of people and their industrious attention to business, 
added to their general virtue and honesty, make neigh- 
borhood life in the country agreeable, hospitable, sym- 
pathetic, and helpful. There never was anything like 
the old-fashioned country hospitality and sociability in 
the South, and it is largely so yet. 



And the greatest of these is love. — / Cor. xiii. if. 

(165) 




Religious Love. 



Part II. 
RELIGIOUS LOVE 



Thou my all! 
My theme! my inspiration ! and my crotvn ! 
My strength in ages! my rise in lozv estate! 
My souVs ambition, pleasure, ivealth! my -world! 
My light. in darkness! and my life in death! 
My boasi through time! bliss through eternity! 

— Toting, "Night Thoughts! 



LOVE OF THE BIBLE 




ITH this chapter is presented the picture of a 
devout family — father, mother, and two chil- 
dren — earnestly and studiously engaged in 
reading the Bible. They love the Bible, and 
therefore love to read it ; and beside them stands an an- 
gelic representative of the Holy Spirit, holding aloft in 
her hand the torch of "illumination" — always the work 
of the Spirit in those who spiritually read and try to 
understand the Word of God. 

The Bible is the Book of Books. No other book ever 
written soars beyond the Bible, or the Bible position on 
any subject. None has lived so long, nor can live, ex- 
cept as some literary curiosity. 

It is the test and standard of all recorded or current 
thought, and the mightiest and most lasting literary 
productions of any age are those that came out of the 
Bible or ran parallel with its teachings. The writings 
of such men as Milton, Shakespeare, Bacon, Bunyan, 
Locke, and a host of others whose works have become 
permanent classics in every language, are immortal 
largely because they are consistent with the Bible. It 
may be said that the heathen wrote hundreds of books, 
without any specific knowledge of the Bible, that have 
come down to us as permanent classics ; but as Bishop 
Thompson said: "As the profoundest philosophy of an- 
cient Rome and Greece lighted her taper at Israel's altar, 
(168) 




Love of the Bible. 



Love of the Bible 171 

so the sweetest strains of the pagan muse were swept 
from harps attuned on Zion's hill." No artist, poet, 
scientist, philosopher, moralist, jurist, or religionist has 
ever written a thing anti-scriptural or extra-scriptural 
that has any permanent value or life. 

The world is flooded every year with books upon all 
subjects, and the average life of books is said to be not 
over five years. The reason is plain that either most of 
them are inferior productions of truth, or else sensa- 
tional or overstrained representations of truth, or else 
in opposition to truth, as revealed in God's Word. Hu- 
man text-books upon all subjects, because of imperfec- 
tion, are constantly undergoing modifications of state- 
ment and change in expression. Speculative science has 
to restate itself every few years, because of its false 
premises and new discoveries. Infidel works are con- 
stantly multiplying in contradiction with each other as 
well as the Bible. Even theology is multiform and con- 
stantly on the change. All sorts of master efforts from 
conflicting standpoints have been made by critics to con- 
tradict, destroy, or depreciate the value of the Bible ; and 
when one set of adverse criticisms has become obsolete, 
men originate new ones; but only the Bible and the 
classic that conforms to the Bible remain permanent and 
unalterable. The Bible is the Gibraltar of literature. 
Around that famous summit of granite the storms, with 
their thunders and lightnings, have played in harmless 
fury for centuries. Time and again it has been the 
scene and subject of battles in which the heaviest artil- 
lery has played upon it in all the fierceness of war ; but, 
after every storm and battle has closed and the clouds 
and the smoke have drifted away under the sunlight of 
heaven, there stands Gibraltar, as if it had never been 
touched by thunderbolt or cannon shot. They have nev- 



172 The Masterwheel 

er chipped a fragment from its hoary brow, nor left a 
scar upon its serene face. There is not to-day another 
book so popular or universally disseminated as the Bible ; 
and it is the only book read in all the languages of the 
earth. 

From every intellectual or moral view point the Bible 
stands infinitely above all the books of the ancients ; and 
the finest productions on intellectual and moral philoso- 
phy in modern times derive their excellence from an in- 
timate study of its contents. "I am of the opinion," says 
Sir William Jones, "that the Bible contains more true 
sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, 
more important history, and finer strains of poetry and 
eloquence than can be collected from all other books in 
whatever age or language they have been written." 
What is true from the intellectual and the moral view 
point is true also from the social and civil and every 
other issue of life upon which men have sought to phi- 
losophize or legislate. The great Milton says: "There 
are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion, no ora- 
tions equal to those of the prophets, and no politics like 
those which the Scriptures teach." 

Then, above all, when it comes to our religion, the 
Bible is God's only book given to man — plenarily in- 
spired by the Holy Spirit — the truth, the whole truth, 
and nothing but the truth. It is a progressive revela- 
tion of God to fallen man, from the Garden of Eden to 
the Cross, and from the Cross to the Apocalypse. 

The Bible, like the book of nature, is replete with 
mysteries above reason, but not contrary to possibilities 
conceived by reason; and this is an evidence of its di- 
vinity. A book wholly comprehensible to reason could 
not be above a human production ; and hence, while the 
historical statement of fact and the ethical requirement 



Love of the Bible 173 

of duty are clear to the apprehension of reason, the mys- 
teries of the Bible appeal to our faith and to the test of 
our experience under the illumination and operation of 
the Divine Spirit. A true spiritual understanding of 
God's Word depends upon the mind and the heart of the 
seeker after Bible truth; and the whole reason for in- 
fidelity or disappointed profession in religion lies in the 
fact of a rationalistic or ritualistic attempt to solve the 
mysteries of the Bible without direct dependence upon 
God's Spirit through faith and experience. The deeper 
a man believes and the more he experiences of divine 
truth, through God's Spirit, the more he knows; and it 
is this experimental knowledge of truth, through faith, 
that makes the Bible consistent with, and apprehensible 
to, reason, even in its profoundest mystery. The true 
Christian is thus enabled to say, as did Job, David, and 
Paul, "I know;" and it is this which gives true love and 
delight in the study of the Bible. A vast amount of it 
we know to be true, intellectually, without any reference 
to spiritual help; but the mysteries of divine revelation 
the infidel, the skeptic, and the formal professor do not 
know, because they have never "spiritually discerned" 
them. 

Truly has it been said : "The Bible is the window in 
this prison of hope through which we look into eternity." 
It teaches us the best way of living, the noblest way of 
suffering, and the only way to die victoriously. It is 
the Christian's Magna Charta, his only storehouse of 
provision, his only armory for battle, his only solace in 
trial ; in it he reads the only record of the Father's loving 
care and of the Saviour's dying legacies, finds the only 
map that will direct him across the stormy deep of time 
to the haven of glory. How foolish for mortals to un- 
dertake to sail across that ocean without chart or com- 



174 The Masterwheel 

pass except the eye of reason ! No sailor could cross 
the Atlantic by his reason and his eye. . The frequent 
fog and cloud and storm would often keep him out of 
sight of the sun by day and of the polestar by night, so 
that he neither could take bearings nor rectify his 
variant course. How much more vain to attempt the 
voyage to heaven without the chart and compass of the 
Bible! Even then we get into the storm of trial and 
temptation, and sail for days with the clouds obscuring 
Christ, our Sun of Righteousness and our Polestar of 
Hope, to which the needle of faith, whether adrift or not, 
ever tremblingly points ; but when the Sun shines again 
and the Star comes out into the clear sky, we can take 
our bearings, rectify our course, and sail straight on. 
What could we do but for the Bible and its Christ? The 
Vedas, the Koran, the philosophies of Confucius, Soc- 
rates, Pythagoras; the vagaries of Swedenborg, Joe 
Smith, Mrs. Eddy — even though some of them put 
Christ on the banner at the masthead — are all short of, or 
in conflict with, the Bible, and have neither compass nor 
chart by which to navigate the dark ocean of life that 
lies between us and heaven. Reason cannot sail that 
ocean, and neither can false and conflicting faiths which 
are sailing in cross or opposite directions. Nothing but 
the old-fashioned Bible, with its crucified Christ — our 
Sun and our Polestar — can ever guide us into the 
heavenly port across such a deep. 

The strangest thing in the world is that so many peo- 
ple do not love the Bible, nor love to read and study it. 
Almost everybody has a Bible. It would not be fashion- 
able to be without one. The great mass of people would 
feel a superstitious dread of being without a Bible; but 
they read anything else. It is about the last thing they 
consult, except for Sunday school or other public service 



Love of the Bible 175 

in religion ; and then it is often only a cramming process 
for a specific occasion and purpose. Good, so far as it 
goes ; but the temporary and spasmodic use of the Bible 
falls infinitely short of its value and service upon the life 
and character of the reader. It is a good thing to hunt 
up its passages, or run through its references, or trace 
up a subject by means of the Concordance, but even this 
is a poor study of the Bible. Some people read it as a 
matter of curiosity, or for the purpose of finding fault 
with it; but this is a deadly and paralyzing use of the 
old book, which, like nature, affords all the darkness a 
man is hunting for with his eyes shut or with his col- 
ored glasses on. The power of the Bible lies in reading 
it and feeding the soul upon it as you would eat bread. 
To read as a daily task or duty, simply to feel or say that 
we have read it, gets but little good out of it ; but to read 
and study it as you would Shakespeare or a novel or a 
text-book is to understand it, love it, and grow by it as 
by no other book in all the world. As Romaine says: 
"The longer you read the Bible, the more you will love 
it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter; and the more you 
get into the spirit of it, the more you will get into the 
spirit of Christ." 

The tendency to neglect the Bible, the indisposition to 
read it, is a sure way for the Christian to neglect his re- 
ligion and never cultivate it. Worse than this, it is a 
pretty good evidence that we either have no religion or 
that we have a very poor article of it. Beecher put it 
very forcibly when he asked and answered the question : 
"What is the Bible in your house? It is not the Old 
Testament, it is not the New Testament, it is not the 
Gospel according to Matthew, or Mark, or Luke, or 
John ; it is the gospel according to William, it is the gos- 
pel according to Mary, it is the gospel according to Hen- 



176 The Masterwheel 

ry and James, it is the gospel according to your own 
name. You write your own Bible." 

All equipment for service is dependent upon the study 
of the Bible. It is the will and the way of God, and the 
Holy Ghost never operates effectively in the mind and 
heart of a worker for Christ beyond what we know of 
God, truth, and duty ; and we have no other guide in this 
respect than the Bible. There are many who know bet- 
ter than they do, but there are none who do better than 
they know. The might and power, the magnificent re- 
sults of Dwight L. Moody's evangelistic and other work, 
arose from his study and application of the Bible; and 
"Moody's Bible" has become a valuable souvenir of the 
history of the greatest evangelist the world has known. 
"The gospel is the power of God unto salvation." It is 
not in human philosophy, logic, or eloquence. A great 
writer says: "The flight of preachers sometimes enter- 
tains me, but it is Scripture expressions which penetrate 
my heart." 

The Bible is a marvel and a wonder. It is God's book, 
written by his finger, a message sent to man from heaven. 
I never look upon it but I feel that it is God speaking to 
my soul in concrete form and in words directly from his 
lips. It embodies the wisdom and power of God in hu- 
man speech; and when I think of its matchless effect 
upon the world and its history, I tremble while I rejoice 
before its golden pages. How it speaks to my conscience 
against sin! how it reveals to my mind the glories and 
terrors of truth ! how it calls aloud to my heart to plead 
its claims upon a lost world and send it to the uttermost 
parts of the earth ! What Christian can look at this di- 
vine oracle lying upon his table and not be startled by 
its voice that thunders the proclamation of salvation and 
cries out : "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 



Love of the Bible 17/ 

to every creature?" What is it that makes the anti- 
missionary and the omissionary ? That unloved — that 
unread or misread — Bible. Some Christians stay at 
home and claim to read their Bibles in lieu of going to 
church and worshiping with the saints. The Bible says : 
"Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together, as 
the manner of some is." It says again: "Give, and it 
shall be given you." It says again: "Go" and "Do." 
No true saint can read it and stay away from God's 
house, or refuse to give, or decline to work. There is no 
such thing as a saintly Bible reader who belongs to the 
non-churchgoing, non-praying, non-giving, non-doing 
fraternity. 

The way of salvation is made so plain in this old book 
that a wayfaring man though a fool need not err therein, 
and its teachings will be the basis of decision at the final 
judgment. How few Christians realize the importance 
of reading its pages as they do the newspapers and sec- 
ular books that are placed beside it on their parlor tables ! 

This Book, this Holy Book, on every line 
Mark'd with the seal of high divinity, 
On every leaf bedew'd with drops of love 
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry 
And signature of God Almighty stamp'd 
From first to last ; this ray of sacred light, 
This lamp, from off the everlasting throne, 
Mercy took down, and in the night of time 
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow ; 
And evermore beseeching men with tears 
And earnest sighs, to read, believe and live. 

Thus wrote Robert Pollok, the Scottish poet, and ev- 
ery word of his measure is instinct with truth and rev 

erence. 
12 




LOVE OF CHRIST 




I HE subject of the opposite illustration is the 
woman taken in adultery and brought to 
Christ by the scribes and Pharisees to tempt 
him as to the law which required her to be 
stoned to death. "He that is without sin among you, 
let him first cast a stone at her," said the Master. The 
result was that, thus convicted of sin in their own hearts, 
they all took their departure — and, so to speak, dropped 
behind them the stones of the law. "Neither do I con- 
demn thee," said Jesus to the woman ; "go thy way ; from 
henceforth sin no more." Behold the hypocrites, va- 
riously branded, leaving the scene ; the Saviour, with the 
terrified woman crouching at his feet, stands with calm 
indignation watching the retreating wretches who, them- 
selves no better than the woman, would have stoned 
her to death. Near her lie the death-dealing stones, 
marked "Law," which Christ fulfilled; beyond springs 
the living flower of "Hope," the gift of the gospel. 

Love finds its center, source, and perfection in Christ. 
He is the incarnation of love both human and divine. 
"God is love," but Christ is that love made manifest in 
the flesh. Abstractly the love of God is universally 
demonstrated in the adaptation of creation to human 
want and happiness ; but in Jesus Christ is the concrete 
illustration of God's infinite love to a fallen race. Christ 
brought down God and his love in all their tangible 
(178) 



Love of Christ 181 

fullness to the apprehension and realization of the hu- 
man heart; for in him was God "touched" with all the 
tangible fullness of human nature and experience. In 
the bosom of Christ the love of God became infinite 
compassion and sympathy — the highest form of love; 
and when he became one of us and with us, and died for 
us, he entered the sacrificial relationship of an eternal 
fraternity and fellowship tenderer and deeper than 
earth or heaven had ever known before. 

How perfectly was that love illustrated during the 
earthly ministry of Christ ! He who had fashioned the 
world "went about" upon it "doing good." He was 
God in a peasant garb going from place to place, touch- 
ing and being touched with the heart and life of sinful 
men, loving and being loved in the salvation and bless- 
ing of the lost. The winds and the seas, the elements 
of nature, the laws and forces of the universe, obeyed 
him, in his ministration of love to the blind, the deaf, 
the diseased, the wretched, and the dead; and wherever 
he trod, the desert fields of sin blossomed with the Rose 
of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. He had no mon- 
ey, but he made thousands rich in grace. He dispensed 
no earthly honors, but he promised thrones of glory to 
the faithful. He gave no immunity from earthly trials 
and afflictions, but he opened up the way of escape to 
endless joy and reward. He ignored social distinctions 
and ate with publicans and sinners, companioned with 
the poor and the outcast, lifted harlots to the kingdom 
of God, and, when crucified, took a thief with him to 
paradise — the first trophy of the cross. 

It was love incarnate that hungered in the valley, that 
was tempted upon the pinnacle of the temple and be- 
set upon the high mountain-top, that Satan might be 
vanquished in our behalf. It was love that rebuked 



182 The Masterwheel 

Peter, his friend, and tolerated Judas, his enemy, both 
the victims of Satan within his own fold, that the Church 
might never be discouraged by imperfection or treason. 
It was love that endured the slanders and persecutions 
of the powers that be, from without, and drove the 
thieves out of his Father's house, from within, that 
Christians might not be dismayed by opposition nor 
overcome by corruption. The bloody sweat of Geth- 
semane overwhelmed love divine with the sorrows of 
death for sin ; and on the cross of Calvary the insupport- 
able agonies of that love paid the penalty of sin and 
satisfied the claim of infinite holiness against the sinner. 
The traitor's kiss, the rude arrest, the mockery of trial, 
the shout of crucifixion, the crown of thorns, the scourge 
of Pilate, were but preliminaries to the awful drama in 
which love played the character of deicide for sin; and 
while love might have called down twelve legions of 
angels to fight against the fate of crucified innocence, 
the Lamb of God opened not his mouth, but went dumb 
to the slaughter for the salvation of a lost world. 

Love bore the cross to the place of its own execution 
and hung on that cross for its executioners; and love 
alone could have transformed that instrument of cruelty 
and disgrace into a symbol of universal power and glory. 
After all, it was not Judas, nor Annas, nor Herod, nor 
Pilate, nor the Pharisees, that did it. Joseph said to 
his brethren who sold him into Egypt: "It was not you 
that sent me hither, but God" — to "save much people" 
— and so he forgave and kissed his brethren. So the 
loving Christ on the cross exclaimed, "Father, forgive 
them ; for they know not what they do ;" and on the day 
of Pentecost the penitent crucifiers of the Son of God 
were pardoned. It was God that did it. The crucifiers 
knew not what they did ; but Love on the Cross under- 



Love of Christ 183 

stood it. The law was being satisfied — sin was being 
atoned — hell's penalty was being canceled — Justice and 
Mercy were shaking hands, while Peace and Righteous- 
ness were kissing each other. When the world's great 
Lover cried, "It is finished," he gave up the ghost, en- 
tered the grave, arose from the dead, ascended on high, 
and is seated at the right hand of all Majesty to wield 
the scepter of universal empire in behalf of his beloved. 

JBut the love of Christ does not stop here. He loved 
his own from everlasting to everlasting. Love laid the 
plan of redemption in the councils of eternity, executed 
it on the cross, and now applies it to the salvation of the 
world. To this end Love wrote the Bible and sent the 
Spirit to woo the human heart. Love made but a sin- 
gle requirement of the sinner — the least that could be 
made — faith in Christ, symbolized by baptism and man- 
ifested by loving obedience. Love made the full sac- 
rifice without a single demand of merit on the sinner's 
part; and hell's penalty was paid and heaven's glory 
bestowed without money or without price. 

This is not all. The love of Christ freely gives us 
all things besides salvation. He not only gives the 
sheep eternal life, but he says "they shall never perish." 
He not only saves them by grace, but keeps them, 
through faith, by his power, unto salvation ready to 
be revealed at the last time. Enlightened by his Word, 
comforted by his Spirit, chastened by his Father, he 
guides and guards them through trial and duty to the 
end; and when one sheep strays, he leaves the ninety 
and nine safe in the fold and restores the wanderer. 
The blackest sheep in the flock, the feeblest lamb, is 
more precious than the apple of his eye ; and the dearest 
assurance of the saint is the pledge of Christ that "who- 
soever is born of God overcometh the world." The 



184 The Masterwheel 

love of Christ "never faileth;'' for "nothing can sep- 
arate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." 

One of the sublimest scenes in the life of the Chris- 
tian is his final triumph over the dying hour. The 
sheep walks through the valley of the shadow of death 
and fears no evil, because his Shepherd is with him, 
and his rod and his staff they comfort him. The day 
of the death of the saint is greater than the day of his 
birth ; and the grandest hour in his life is that in which, 
through the gates of death, he goes to heaven. 

But the half has never yet been told. O the here- 
after ! One of the richest manifestations of divine love 
in the Bible is seen in the angelic escort of Lazarus, 
God's pauper friend, to paradise and to the compan- 
ionship of Abraham. So of the thief on the cross who 
had the honor of going right from the horrors of 
crucifixion to paradise with his Lord. So of Stephen, 
who looked up from the martyrdom of stoning to Je- 
sus standing on his throne ready to receive his spirit. 
So of Elijah, who went to heaven in a chariot of fire 
without dying; and so of Enoch, who went from walk- 
ing with God here to live with him through eternity. 
What must be the glory of Paul and Spurgeon and 
Moody and of that great blood-washed throng who go 
up to God through great tribulation! What millions 
of saints in paradise peacefully, restfully waiting for 
the redemption of the body — the perfection of salvation 
— through the love of our Lord Jesus Christ ! 

Then we shall walk the golden streets, breathe the 
celestial air, and bask in the light of the great white 
throne. The marriage supper of the Lamb shall be 
the everlasting feast of love. Hallelujah shall be the 
endless music of praise. Service will be the eternal 
flight upward in the development of the redeemed, as 



Love of Christ 185 

they shall still grow in grace and knowledge toward 
the infinite perfections of God. Ecstasy and bliss shall 
fill every soul to the full of its capacity with the rapture 
of love divine; and not a shadow of doubt or fear shall 
ever fall upon the heart to mar its felicity. There shall 
be no more stormy sea and no night. Not a tear shall 
ever fall — not a pang of grief and not a touch of pain — 
and not a remembrance of the sad and sinful past. This 
is the inheritance of love, incorruptible, undefiled, and 
that never fadeth away. Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor heart conceived, the good things God hath 
in reserve for the redeemed in Christ. O, what shall it 
be to be there ? 



LOVE OF SOULS 







N the accompanying picture we find wretched 
people in a sea of sin, vice, and pleasure; 
some floating on the plank of self-righteous- 
ness; some on ancestry; some on education, 
or science; some on infidelity; some on culture; others 
drifting on nothing at all ; and only a few grasping the 
gospel rope and reaching out for help to those standing 
upon the Rock of Ages, the only pulpit of the minister 
and the only safe refuge for souls. On the other side 
is the Devil seeking to entice the sinner away from the 
Rock, congratulating those upon the planks, and point- 
ing all to the vain delusions of the world — the bar- 
room, the club, and the like — behind which is the sea of 
damnation over which the angel of darkness and death 
presides. 

The difference between the lowest man and the high- 
est animal is the immortal soul, which the animal has 
not. The spirit of the animal goes downward, becomes 
extinct; the spirit of man goes upward, returns to the 
God who gave it, lives as long as God lives. When 
God created man, he made him in his own likeness and 
image ; breathed into his nostrils the breath of life from 
his own being, and gave him a living soul. This is not 
said of any other thing of the animal creation; and 
hence by no process of evolution did man ever spring 
from a monkey, ape, or chimpanzee. 
(186) 



Love of Souls 189 

Man's only prototype is God, in whose image he 
was created, and whose personality and attributes he 
possesses to a limited degree. He is not of the essence 
of God, but is in the likeness of God ; and his immortality 
is fixed by God's decree. He can never die ; and though 
the body dies, God has decreed its resurrection through 
Jesus Christ, and its reunion with the soul, never to 
die again. Good or bad, in heaven or hell, men are 
going to live as long as God lives. The best thought of 
both philosophers and Christian scholars has been given 
to the study of the immortality of the soul, and their con- 
clusion, in the light of reason as well as by revelation, 
is that only the fool hath said in his heart, "There is 
no God and no immortality." Pope grandly says: 

Lo, the poor Indian ! whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind ; 
His soul proud Science never taught to stray 
Far as the solar walk or milky way ; 
Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n, 
Behind the cloud-topt hills, a humbler heav'n. 

No mortal was ever born an atheist, or a disbeliever 
in the immortality of the soul; and there has been no 
nation or race of people that did not believe in a deity. 
The thought is solely the result of a perverted mind, 
isolated from the universal belief in God. 

If one of the ideals of love is the beautiful, then the 
soul should be the object of man's deepest affection. 
I have seen people go into ecstasies over a flower, or 
into raptures as they look up into the starry dome at 
night or as they watch the glories of the landscape be- 
neath the splendors of the setting sun. I have seen 
them charmed with the personal beauty of those who 
have been favored in form and feature. How lovely 
the beautiful things in nature, made so by the impressive 



190 The Masterwheel 

touch of God! and so adapted to please, delight, and 
bless our sensuous natures ! How much more, then, the 
beauty of the soul, created in the image and likeness of 
God! Its beauty was holiness and purity; and though 
marred by sin, it is capable of wearing God's likeness 
and image again; beautiful even in its ruin, like some 
splendid temple fallen or a moldering column, yet rich 
with the traceries of the sculptor's art. The soul is the 
only thing in the universe like God ; and he that loves the 
beautiful in God cannot fail to love the beautiful in the 
soul. 

There is a beauty that can never perish — 
A hidden path no vulture's eye hath found. 

Vainly ye seek it who in sense alone 

Wander amid the sweets the world hath given ; 

As vainly ye who make the mind the throne 
While the heart bends a slave, insulted, driven. 

Thou who wouldst know what beauty this can be, 

Look on the sunlight of the soul's purity. 

Value is also an ideal of love; and the more valuable 
a thing is, the more we love it. We love gold more than 
brass, and diamonds more than pebbles. Beauty and 
preciousness in an object combine to intensify and en- 
hance the exquisite delight of our affections; and if to 
beauty we add the value of the soul, we have an object 
eminently worthy of our love. Some things are beau- 
tiful but not valuable, others are valuable but not beau- 
tiful; but in the soul made in God's image, and partaking 
of God's character, we have an object of love both in- 
finitely valuable and beautiful beyond the power of the 
mind to estimate. Christ gives us some faint concep- 
tion of the soul's value when he says: "What shall it 
profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange 



Love of Souls 191 

for his soul?" The soul is spirit, not matter; it is eter- 
nal, not temporal. It is a personal entity, like God; 
and, in the spirit world, next to God. All else shall 
pass away, or be changed, except God and the soul. 

Again, another ideal of love is greatness and glory. 
If the soul is the most beautiful and valuable of all 
God's creations, it is also the greatest and most glorious. 
The material world is not conscious of its own existence, 
a great passive mass made active only by the presence 
and power of the immanent God; while the soul has 
capacities for knowledge, virtue, and happiness, suscep- 
tible of an almost infinite development even unto like- 
ness to God. The soul comprehends not only time, but 
eternity ; and while the plant and animal world may per- 
ish and be forgotten, the soul will continue to live and 
grow in value and greatness. 

The most startling phenomenon in human nature is 
the spiritual indifference of men toward the soul. With 
few exceptions, the Christian world does not make the 
soul a paramount study; and vast numbers of the non- 
Christian world live as if they had no soul. Millions 
of men and women live only upon an animal plane, thou- 
sands below it, and but few above it, and even those 
few live in a perpetual conflict between the animal and 
the spiritual. Christ tells us to lay up treasure in heav- 
en, but we are laying it up on earth. Paul tells us to 
be content with food and raiment, that we brought noth- 
ing into the world and can take nothing out of it; but 
gain in excess of needed food and raiment seems to be 
with many the prime object of life. The Master tells 
us to "Seek first [make paramount] the kingdom of 
God, and his righteousness," and that all these things 
shall be added to us ; but not one Christian in a hundred 
is controlled by this startling proposition. Interest in 



192 The Masterwheel 

the soul, even by God's children, judged by our giving 
and doing for religion, in comparison with what we do 
for the flesh, is a pittance instead of a beneficence. But 
for the honored few who put the soul above every other 
consideration, man's immortality might seem a myth in 
the midst of the most Christian age the world ever en- 
joyed. 

If a man wants to conceive of the worth of the soul, 
let him look at the price which God paid for its redemp- 
tion. God so loved the world as to give his Son for us ; 
and yet there are but few that ever stop to ponder upon 
that wondrous love that paid such a price to redeem us, 
or to love in return. Thousands view religion as a 
bare escape from hell, a bare securement of heaven ; and 
beyond the fear of hell and hope of heaven, they have 
no interest in the soul and no gratitude to God, who 
bought them with an infinite price. They neither love 
God, love their own souls, nor the souls of others; and, 
without any degree of faith or hope, they spend their 
years in worldly pleasure with only formal attention to 
the soul and its God. 

The passion for the salvation of lost souls is the no- 
blest affection which ever yet animated a human breast ; 
and the grandest and most profitable work a mortal ever 
engaged in is the winning of souls. The soul winner is 
the greatest man in God's eyes, and he has promised 
that they who turn many to righteousness shall shine 
as the stars forever and ever. This love alone brought 
Christ to the world as the sinner's substitute and sacri- 
ficial offering; and he whose sympathy and love cannot 
get down into the sinner's place and take his stead, feel 
his woe, and seek his redemption knows nothing of the 
life and love of Christ in his own soul. A mighty test 
is Christian love for enemies, to bless for cursing, and 



Love of Souls 193 

to do them good for evil; but a grander grace, and one 
which marks more deeply the Christian spirit, is love 
for lost souls. 

There are 1,500,000,000 people in the world, and 
more than 1,000,000,000 souls yet unsaved. The Chris- 
tian people of the United States give annually about $25,- 
000,000 for home and foreign missions, not as much as 
we pay for kid gloves, and yet there are about 25,000,000 
Christians in this country! They spend far more than 
this upon amusements and luxuries. There is a vast 
amount of religion in the world and there are millions 
of Christians, but comparatively few who primarily 
and passionately love the souls of men. Nothing but 
love can properly estimate the value of a soul and meet 
that responsibility. 
13 



LOVE OF THE CHURCH 




E behold, in the picture accompanying this 
chapter, a great crowd vigorously pressing 
its way to the house of God in testimony of 
its love for the Church. People who love the 
Church, which is the Bride of Christ, love to attend upon 
its services. There are other individuals and imperson- 
ations in the group who go to church, but who do not 
love it — some even try to destroy it. Behind the crowd 
is the busy Devil trying to tempt a man to turn aside to 
the saloon, or some other evil of which it is a type, in 
front of which stands a keeper or a victim. On each side 
of the Church are also characteristic devils seeking to 
introduce false doctrines, here symbolized by wolves 
seeking an entrance into the sheepfold. They are here 
variously branded as Dowieism, Spiritism, Eddyism, 
Theosophy, Mormonism, Infidelity, and the like. The 
Church itself is symbolized by the corner stones of 
truth and life; its door of holiness overshadowed by 
the Spirit; its windows, the ordinances; its central doc- 
trine, the cross; its joy and prosperity characterized by 
flowers and fruits. 

The church is Christ's organized body, the "pillar 
and ground of the truth." It is a local institution com- 
posed of baptized believers, with its bishops and its dea- 
cons, continuing steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and 
fellowship, administering the ordinances of the gospel, 
(194) 




Love of the Church. 



Love of the Church 197 

and constituted for the purpose of saving the world and 
edifying saints. It is a self-governing body, independ- 
ent of all organic connection with any other body; and 
its only head is Christ, its only law is the gospel, and its 
only guide is the Holy Spirit. There is an ideal or fig- 
urative sense in which the word "church" is used to 
embrace all the spiritual Israel of God. This is the 
mystic body of Christ, of which the visible body of Christ 
is the concrete expression or type; but the New Testa- 
ment reveals no organic general church of which the 
local church is a constituent body. 

We have no practical dealing with the universal spir- 
itual Church, except to extend it by increasing the vis- 
ible Church. It is with this organic Church that we 
have to deal by relationship and duty; and as Christ's 
sole and only visible institution on earth we are to love 
and support it for all the purposes of its institution. 
The highest position a mortal can enjoy upon earth is 
membership in a local church of Christ, and the high- 
est office this side of heaven is that of a minister in that 
church. No other organization represents Christ on 
earth, and to no other has he committed his oracles and 
his cause. "Unto God be glory," says Paul, "in the 
Church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world with- 
out end;" and through no other medium can I let my 
light shine, or my life be felt, than the congregation of 
Christ to which I belong. There may be general or- 
ganization by way of church cooperation, in order to 
create general comity, unity, and world-wide efficiency; 
but the glory of results must belong to God through the 
churches which constitute the general bodies. There 
may be extra-scriptural organizations and institutions 
called churches, or otherwise, in the name of Christ. 
They may do great good and be blessed of God, but they 



198 The Masterwheel 

are not the repository of God's oracles or authority, nor 
the medium of God's glory. Religiously every Chris- 
tian should be a member of some one of Christ's local 
churches; and whatever that Christian does to glorify 
God, or bless the world, should be done, directly or in- 
directly, through his church. 

I see Christians isolated from the churches, working 
in their own way, cooperating with everything but the 
local body of Christ. They give to missions or charity, 
devote themselves to religious effort, or belong to a half 
dozen orders or organizations to do the work of the 
churches, and they seem to glory in glorifying God in 
their own way — anything but God's way. I grant 
that there can arise conditions in which church relations 
would be impossible, and that Christ has not prescribed 
every detail and method of his work. The man casting 
out devils, and who was proscribed by the apostles be- 
cause not going with them, was commended by Christ. 
Nevertheless, wherever the churches of Christ are set 
up and convenient to relationship, they are the sole me- 
dium of Christ's authority and God's glory in every 
service we can render. It is our duty to live in the 
church, give to it, work through it, pray for it, and love 
it; and as a matter of order, discipline, and orthodoxy 
there is no other institution in which God's authority 
can be executed. 

I admit also that some churches are imperfect institu- 
tions, and may err or be destroyed. Nevertheless, as long 
as one of them exists and is owned of Christ, it is the 
body of Christ, and as Christ loved and admonished the 
defective churches of Asia, so, if I am better than my 
church, I must love it and help to make it right. Christ 
had a betraying Judas, a denying Peter, and a doubting 
Thomas among the twelve — one-fourth of the apostolic 



Love of the Church 199 

body in defection; and he did not forsake even Judas 
until his apostasy was complete. It is a poor Chris- 
tian who gets impatient with his church and forsakes it, 
until its candle goes out. I knew a church which col- 
lapsed with disorder and indifference, and seemed dead 
for years; but three pious women prayed until it was 
revived and restored, and is now a flourishing body. 
Those women loved the Church, and understood the 
meaning and purpose of membership in a church. 

Some people join the Church for selfish purposes. 
They seek a church congenial to their social tastes, or 
that will subserve their popular or financial interests. 
They may live next door to a church that sorely needs 
their influence and support ; but they want a church that 
can help them, not one they must help. The fine singer 
leaves the church that needs her, to take pay in a church 
that could do without her; and so she makes merchan- 
dise of the kingdom of God, and knows nothing of love 
and service for the glory of Christ in the Church. Why 
not as well pay the competent deacon, Sunday school 
superintendent, and teacher for their service in the 
Church? Humility and self-sacrifice should be the 
price of membership in a church of Christ; and there 
can be no love for the Church when pride, ambition, and 
self-seeking enter as an element of relationship. 

Such alone is the Church of Christ in its spiritual as- 
pect; and though the number be few, the membership 
poor, the place a hovel, yet it is God's Church, and dear- 
er than the apple of his eye. Such alone can sing : 

I love thy kingdom, Lord, 

The house of thine abode, 
The Church our blest Redeemer saved 

With his own precious blood. 




LOVE OF THE BRETHREN 




HE scene represented in the picture with this 
chapter is that of an old-time Baptist Asso- 
ciation at the close of its session when the 
brethren and sisters sing "Blest be the tie," 
shake hands, and go home. If there have been any ar- 
guments or cross words, they are forgotten ; often, with 
tears streaming down their cheeks, the members say 
"Good-by and God bless you" to each other with a grip 
of the hand and a heartfelt expression that cannot be 
mistaken. They go among each other, until each has 
shaken the hand of each, and whatever else about the 
gathering may be forgotten, the farewell handshake and 
the valedictory blessing are remembered. 

I come now to speak of God's family, his spiritual 
household, the Church or body of Christ. God's fam- 
ily is made up of God's children; and his family, like a 
human family, is composed of all sorts of children. 
There are good, bad, and indifferent children in God's 
family, just as there are in human families. There are 
black or spotted sheep, as well as white sheep, in the 
divine as in the human fold; but a sheep is a sheep, no 
matter what its character may be. A sheep is not a 
goat, and a goat is not a sheep, though he may wear" 
a sheep's clothing. The sheep and the goat look some- 
thing alike, but there is a big difference betwixt the 
(200) 



Love of the Brethren 203 

sheep and the goat nature. There are no goats, how- 
ever sheeplike, in God's spiritual family; and there are 
no sheep, however goatlike, in the Devil's family. The 
visible Church, which should wholly be God's family, 
often has goats in it; but in the Church spiritual there 
is not a goat to be found. Sometimes a sheep is found 
outside of Christ's visible body, wandering in the world 
and companying with the goats; but he belongs to 
God's spiritual body, though astray, and not to the 
Devil's family. Sometimes a sheep will follow a goat 
and try to live like a goat — on sticks, paper, and straw 
— or climb fences and crooked trees, as the goat does, 
but the sheep away from the fold will soon starve, and 
he will always be in trouble. 

God's family is the closest of kin and the best related 
of all families. They are "born of God," through Je- 
sus Christ, by the Holy Ghost, of "incorruptible seed;" 
and hence they are of the flesh and spirit of Christ and 
"partakers of the divine nature." They are all the 
sons and daughters of a King ; and no other people have 
such a pedigree as theirs. They have a joint inherit- 
ance with Christ, through whom they were begotten, 
to all the position and glory he enjoys; and they are 
to wear white robes and regal crowns, as they sit with 
him on thrones of glory. They are a royal kinghood 
and priesthood, and there is not a plebeian in all the 
stock of the spiritual Israel. Not even the angels can 
boast of such a line of ancestry or descent ; and the kings 
and princes of earth are "scrubs," beside the least and 
lowest of earth born into the family and kingdom of 
God. The beggar becomes a prince through Christ, 
and the prince becomes a beggar without Christ. 
Seraphim and cherubim are to be ministers to the heirs 
of salvation. 



204 The Masterwheel 

Now the evidence of birth in this family is a family 
likeness and love. It is a unique love and a peculiar 
likeness ; and hence is the subject of a "new command- 
ment," "Love one another/' This love is the bond of 
a divine and eternal brotherhood, created by the tie of 
crucial blood which covenanted forever the relation- 
ship. In this relation Christ tells us that if we do not 
love him more than father and mother, brother and 
sister, houses and lands, we cannot be his disciples ; and 
hence the kindred relation between the saints should be 
closer than in the human family. Often this love has 
been displayed by the martyr spirit that parted from 
every kindred bond of earth in order to follow Jesus 
and be with the brethren, even at the risk of the dun- 
geon, the wild beasts, and the burning stake. If neces- 
sary, any true Christian, as Paul was, would be sep- 
arated from and suffer the loss of all things for Christ's 
sake and for the sake of his brethren. Love for Christ 
and the brethren, against every other relationship and 
interest in the world, is one of the signs and tests of 
true discipleship, and under the most trying ordeals and 
sacrifices this love has been demonstrated in millions 
of saints in every age and country. 

The loving John makes this phase of love one of the 
infallible evidences of our being born of God. He 
says : "We know that we have passed out of death into 
life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not 
[his brother] abideth in death." Again he says, "He 
that loveth his brother abideth in the light," and he 
says more, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness," 
and "is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer 
hath eternal life abiding in him." John bases the kin- 
dred love of the brethren upon our love for God; and 
he unanswerably fixes the logic of Christian love in 



Love of the Brethren 205 

these words: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth 
his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his 
brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom 
he hath not seen?" 

There have been many forms of brotherhood in the 
world. Aside from family relationships, there have 
been hundreds of orders, societies, and organizations 
which, through some common interest, bound men to- 
gether by the ties of organized brotherhood. Masons, 
Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Knights of Labor, and 
other such sodalities are forms of brotherhood among 
men bound together by principles and purposes which 
involve and develop the closest ties of human sympathy 
and fraternity ; and often these human forms of brother- 
hood are beautiful in harmony and efficient in great 
usefulness. There is nothing so productive of unity, 
peace, power, and fruitfulness in good as brotherhood, 
order, and cooperation; but there is a brotherhood di- 
vine, whose kinship and purpose are to bring the world 
together in Christ and in the unity and relationship of 
an eternal love, which is to characterize us when all 
earthly bonds are broken and when heaven shall be the 
everlasting fold of God's family. The center of this 
great fraternity is Christ, our Elder Brother. He 
walked through this world of sin, and by miracles of 
love and labor he restored nature to order and har- 
mony and man to God. He was our Brother, and by 
this fact he established a brotherhood which we should 
imitate, and love one another as we love him and as 
he loves us. It is not an exclusive brotherhood, though 
royal in blood and relationship. The only coat of arms 
required is the converted heart, upon which has been 
imprinted the cross of Calvary. 



LOVE OF FRIENDS 




AVID and Jonathan, who form the subject 
of this chapter's illustration, furnish the 
most pathetic story of disinterested friend- 
ship in the world. Jonathan loved David 
own soul, and their love was stronger than 
of women. Jonathan had every reason to 
of David in the interest of his father, 



as his 
the love 
be the enemy 
the king, to whose throne he was heir, and in view of 
the fact that David was to take that throne from him; 
but, instead, he loved David, saved his life, and pledged 
him, when- he should become king, to remember Saul's 
house in mercy. On the other hand, David covenanted 
with Jonathan to carry out his request, and was faithful 
to his promises for Jonathan's sake. When Saul and 
Jonathan fell upon the fatal Gilboa, David sang their 
praises in the loftiest paean ever devoted to the heroic 
dead. The friendship of David and Jonathan is one of 
the highest examples of affection in any age of the world. 
Friendship is an important phase of love. There can 
be no true love without friendship; and there can be 
no true friendship without love. There may be a tech- 
nical difference in definition and degree, but there is no 
real difference in fact or in effect. Love among mor- 
tals gets its distinction from friendship mostly through 
its application to love between the sexes. Here the 
word "friendship" is regarded as too tame an expres- 
(206) 




Love of Friends. 



Love of Friends 209 

sion for the holy passion by which two souls are made 
one. Here beauty can love the ugly, symmetry love 
the deformed, and often adore the wreck of immorality, 
without regard to any basis upon which to found a 
sentiment of that respect or approbation which is essen- 
tial to friendship. Parental or filial love presents the 
same phase of indifference to quality because it is in- 
stinctive and inborn by reason of fleshly ties. Friend- 
ship may be distinguished from the love that springs 
up by some mysterious affinity between the sexes, or in 
blood relations, because it is always based upon senti- 
ments of esteem and respect. A friend is one who looks 
propitiously upon us and our best interests in prosper- 
ity, and who will not forsake us in adversity. Friend- 
ship is based solely on quality or qualification, which 
creates our appreciation for one another ; and while it 
may begin in caution and care, without any great degree 
of affection, yet it may grow and develop into the most 
ardent love. There can be no true friendship without 
confidence ; and there can be no confidence without these 
well-sustained conditions essential to friendship. When 
once established and matured, friendship involves one 
of the most rational loves that exist in the relations of 
life. 

A friendship based upon selfish interest, however ap- 
parently ardent or sacrificial, is not only false, but it is 
sure to have an end where the interest ends or fails 
to be subserved. "That friendship will not continue to 
the end," says Quarles, "that is begun for an end." 
The fawning and obsequious flatterers that flutter like 
butterflies and bees about the flowers of wealth, power, 
and place are only for the pollen and the honey; when 
the flowers fade the butterflies and bees fly away to 
others. The prodigal son, who wasted his substance 
14 



210 The Masterwheel 

upon wine, women, and gamblers, no doubt had the 
most enthusiastic friends while his money lasted; but 
when he reached the confines of rags and beggary there 
was none to respect or give unto him. Constant pros- 
perity often makes us the victims of the self-seeking 
schemer and flatterer; and one of the greatest fools 
in the world is the man so blinded, by success that 
he succumbs to the guile of parasites. Like old Timon 
of Athens, he sails into stormy seas by his loans and 
indorsements for his so-called friends; and when the 
ship of his prosperity is wrecked upon the reefs of 
misfortune, they know him not. 

Even among the good and great we sometimes hear 
the melancholy wail that arises from a want of true 
friendship. Goldsmith sadly says: 

And what is friendship but a name, 

A charm that lulls to sleep, 
A shade that follows wealth and fame, 

But leaves the wretch to weep? 

On the other hand, the greatest and best of earth 
have paid the highest tribute to this sacred passion. 
God's Word says: "A friend loveth at all times; and a 
brother is born for adversity." While the world stands, 
the friendship of Damon and Pythias, put almost to 
the very test of death, will remain as the greatest ex- 
ample of disinterested devotion between friends. There 
have always been, are now, and ever will be men and 
women capable of true and lasting friendship. Espe- 
cially among Christian people should true friendship 
be found. The most dignified compliment ever paid 
to a man was that bestowed upon Abraham, who was 
called the "friend of God." No man can be God's 
friend who is not his brother's friend. The very worst 
of people have sometimes been found with the truest 



Love of Friends 211 

and most lasting friendships among them. The very- 
weakest, as well as the strongest, may be friends to each 
other; and it is perhaps as often in our kindred weak- 
ness, as in our kindred strength, that our friendships 
are made. 

The greatest treasure in the world is a friend. Broth- 
er, sister, father, wife may not always be our friend; 
and hence it has been said that "friendship is stronger 
than kindred." Whether Napoleon was ever the true 
and lasting friend of anybody, I know not; but in the 
dark hours of his captivity he knew how to appreciate 
the friends that followed him to the lonely isle of his 
imprisonment; and hence he was able to give the sub- 
ject its loftiest definition when he said: "A faithful 
friend is the true image of the Deity." The true friend 
will not flatter us in evil, will tell us our faults to cure 
them, and will not court us in fortune to forsake us in 
adversity. 

One of the most important things in life is the mak- 
ing of friendships ; and, in order to become fast and per- 
manent, they should begin cautiously and grow slow- 
ly. Washington said: "True friendship is a plant of 
slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the 
shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appella- 
tion." 

The poet sang truly : 

"Hail, friendship ; since the world began, 
Heaven's kindest, noblest boon to man ; 
All other joys with meteor fire 
Quenched in the mists of time expire; 
But thou, unhurt by fortune's blast, 
Shin'st brightest, clearest at the last !" 



,-i.l 



LOVE OF ENEMIES 




|HE illustration following represents the Good 
Samaritan, the central figure of the Saviour's 
most beautiful and pathetic parable. The 
priest passed by on one side of the wounded 
and half-dead brother, the Levite on the other ; but the 
Samaritan, a national enemy, became the sufferer's 
friend and helper. This is perhaps the most difficult 
form of love and one of the highest and best evidences 
that we are the children of God. 

Love your enemies ! It is hard to love disagreeable 
folks, the crippled and deformed, the bad or vicious. 
It is a strain upon affection to love the unlovable and 
like the unlikeable. Some people don't even love those 
who love them. It is absolutely natural to hate your 
enemies, and to do to them as they do to you. There 
is not an element in our human constitution that prompts 
love of an enemy. Before Christ, in all ages and 
among all creeds of men, among all philosophies and 
religions of the human race, man was never taught to 
love his enemies. True, under the legal dispensation 
the Old Testament implies such a teaching in the com- 
mand to love God supremely and your neighbor un- 
selfishly; but Judaism, under its false interpretation, 
taught that while one should love his neighbor he 
should hate his enemies. Rome, Greece, Egypt, Baby- 
lon, Nineveh, all hated and destroyed their enemies ; and 
(212) 




Love of Enemies. 



Love of Enemies 215 

even now nations hate each other and leave their differ- 
ences to the arbitrament of the sword. It is a startling 
command that we must love our enemies. 

Most people do not love their neighbors as they love 
themselves, even when upon good terms. Real, unselfish 
love, that strictly observes the golden rule, is scarce. 
It is not found at all in politics, rarely in business, 
and but little oftener in social intercourse. David Har- 
um's quaint maxim, "Do to the other fellow as he would 
do to you, and do it fust," is very much the sentiment 
of the world. Society may be cultured, decent, high- 
toned, and respectful to itself. Certain general rules 
of relationship, unity, and amity are carefully observed. 
There is a standard of honor, virtue, and integrity 
held up, the violation of which blights reputation and 
breaks the circle of intimacy and acquaintance. There 
are social, business, political, and other forms of friend- 
ship and love based upon esteem or interest which are 
highly prized and maintained. But, however near we 
may approach to the ideal of loving our neighbor as 
ourselves, few actually reach that high standard of life. 
How easy to break the sweetest and happiest relations 
even among good people! A joke, an unconscious 
blunder, an angry word, a witty retort, may easily 
turn conventional friendship to hate which may lead to 
tragedy and disaster. Every neighborhood, every fam- 
ily, is sleeping upon a smothered volcano that may burst 
into eruption at any time. 

Where did this idea, new to the world, come from? 
Who originated it? Is it a possibility? Can it be 
done? True, it was imbedded in the Old Testament; 
but it came out plain and clear in the light of the New. 
Christ said to his disciples: "Ye have heard that it 
hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate 



216 The Masterwheel 

thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, 
bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate 
you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and 
persecute you; that ye may be the children of your 
Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on 
the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which 
love you, what reward have ye? do not even the pub- 
licans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, 
what do ye more than others ? do not even the publicans 
so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father 
which is in heaven is perfect." The apostle Paul em- 
phasizes the fact that God loved his enemies and that 
Christ died for them when he says : "God commendeth 
his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin- 
ners [enemies], Christ died for us." 

There is here no equivocation or dodging the question. 
God requires his children, as he does himself, to love 
their enemies, and to show it by praying for those who 
despitefully use them, returning good for evil, blessing 
for cursing. It is no answer to the question of duty 
that we never knew anybody who did this; and it can- 
not be assumed that one of God's children cannot do 
what God tells him to do. Christ did it, even amid the 
cruel agonies of the cross, when he prayed for his ene- 
mies and said, "Father, forgive them ; for they know not 
what they do;" and Stephen did it when, in behalf of 
his enemies who were killing him, he also prayed that 
God would not lay this sin to their charge. Millions 
of martyrs since, rotting in filthy dungeons, or thrown 
to the wild beasts, or burning at the stake, have loved 
and prayed for the salvation of their persecutors. So 
there is neither use in trying to construe away the truth 
of what God says, nor in saying that such love has not 



Love of Enemies 217 

been thoroughly exemplified upon God's part and on 
the part of millions of saints under the most trying con- 
ditions. I grant that it is not natural but supernatural, 
and possible only to the soul born of God and a par- 
taker of the divine nature. 

Some Christian people assume that the Bible teaches 
that we are not to love our enemies nor forgive their 
wrongs until they repent. They maintain that even 
God- forgives and loves only upon this condition, and 
that they should not do more than God. Peter wanted 
to know of the Master how often he should forgive upon 
repentance, and seemed to think that about seven times 
would be enough ; but Jesus said seventy times seven in 
one day. God loves men irrespective of their attitude 
toward him, for he rains upon the just and the unjust 
alike. He forgives and accepts the repentant under the 
same love he had for them before repentance; and so 
we are to forgive and restore to fellowship our penitent 
enemy under the love we had for him all the time, and 
we are to be in the constant attitude of doing him good 
whether he repents or not. As God, for Christ's sake, 
has forgiven us, we must in heart love and forgive even 
our impenitent enemy ; and when he does repent, extend 
that forgiveness to an open acceptance and restoration 
of fellowship. Christ taught us to pray: "Forgive us 
our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." 

Love is the law of fraternity in the Church and even 
in worldly organizations. Already we see the fruits of 
this spirit in Christian and other fraternal organizations, 
international arbitrations and peace congresses, which 
indicate that even rulers and statesmen are animated 
by the spirit of the gospel, and are leading the nations 
to settle their differences without strife and bloodshed. 
An elevated spirit of compromise between the great con- 



218 The Masterwheel 

flicting interests of mankind is everywhere manifest; 
and the injunction of Christ to love and forgive our 
enemies, and to do good for evil, is leavening the whole 
lump of national life and international relationship. The 
code duello is no longer recognized or respected among 
good people; and the arbitrament of the sword will ere 
long be a policy of the past. It has too often been dem- 
onstrated that what Jesus said to Peter is true: "They 
that take the sword shall perish by the sword." Hatred 
of enemies never yet won a permanent victory. Hanni- 
bal said, "I hate those Romans ;" and although he came 
near conquering them, yet the cry of old Cato, "Car- 
thago delenda est" ("Carthage must be destroyed"), at 
last prevailed. All the nations, civilizations, and reli- 
gions that conquered and ruled the world by hate and 
cruelty are dead or dying. 

There is nothing so magnanimous and noble as the 
love and forgiveness of enemies. Not even the repent- 
ance and confession of the wrongdoer compares with 
the grace and dignity that can look above wrong and 
enmity, and which, while it suffers injury, can love the 
wrongdoer, and return good for evil. To be envious 
or jealous of the good, or of our neighbor's reputation 
and prosperity, is the sin of self-wrought misery, born 
of infinitesimal meanness; but the spirit of hatred to- 
ward an enemy is the venom of small minds, which, like 
the scorpion girt by fire, stings itself to death while 
stinging others. Every blow of hatred upon its enemy 
is but a boomerang that hits back to hurt the projector. 
The man armed with pistol or dagger to slay his enemy 
is loaded for his own destruction; and while he may 
slay the victim of his revenge and send him to hell, he 
cuts himself off from God and heaven, and goes with the 



Love of Enemies 219 

trophy of his madness to join with him in the horrors of 
a double doom, wrought by his own hand. 

The severest test of Christianity is the love of our ene- 
mies. The Christian who loves his enemies has at- 
tained love in every other direction of duty and obliga- 
tion. Such love is the topmost blossom that grows on 
the tree of Christian graces. He who has it is Christ- 
like. There is nothing on earth or in hell that can hurt 
him. Like some rocky summit around which the thun- 
der and lightnings play in harmless fury, he is above the 
scorn, contempt, and violence of all opposition that may 
hit him but never hurt him. Such a man can be abso- 
lutely fearless and impenetrable to earthly criticism and 
obloquy ; such a man can God use for the defense of the 
truth and the exemplification of Christian love. 




LOVE OF THE AFFLICTED 




HE subject illustrated for this chapter is the 
sick-room, with which we are all more or less 
familiar. Next to the grave the sick-bed is 
the universal leveler of mankind. What a 
pitiable object is here presented: a sick man utterly de- 
pendent upon the ministrations of the doctor, the nurse, 
his family, or friends ! It is here, too, that love has 
a fine field for manifestation. It is shown not only 
by the nurse and doctor who watch every movement and 
symptom of the patient, but by the faithful minister who 
kneels to pray beside the bedside of his parishioner. In 
the background is the winged angel of mercy who rep- 
resents God's Holy Spirit and who comes to lay an un- 
seen hand upon the fevered brow, and minister spiritual 
comfort to the soul. 

Human defectiveness is not so extensive as human 
poverty and vice, but we have enough of it to attract 
our constant attention and sympathy and to make it 
the subject of organized charity and governmental leg- 
islation. In every State of our Union and in every 
civilized country there are schools for the blind, the deaf 
and the dumb, asylums for the idiot and the insane, 
hospitals for the helpless and the afflicted. This is but 
another evidence of the love and charity of our Christian 
civilization. Paganism had little or no sympathy for 
(220) 



Love of the Afflicted 223 

numan defectiveness; and it was not until Christ 
preached the gospel to the poor, healed the cripple, and 
gave sight to the blind that the world felt any sense of 
charity in the vast realm of the defective. Even among 
the Jews there was no idea of organized charity in be- 
half of the defective classes. The blind sat by the way- 
side and begged ; the demoniac howled and raged among 
the tombs; the leper was driven from society. Beyond 
the customary giving of alms to the helpless, there was 
no charity which provided for or protected the defective 
class. 

One of the most difficult things in human nature is to 
sympathize with defectiveness and love those who are 
afflicted. There is something within us that covets per- 
fection. We love to look upon that which is symmet- 
rical, proportionate, and beautiful. Our whole nature 
is averse to deformity, monstrosity, or mutilation. We 
may sympathize with respectable suffering and misfor- 
tune, but the faculty of taste and discrimination, the 
sense of order and relation, the perception of unity and 
harmony, in the constitution of the mind, revolt at any 
violation of our ideals of physical or moral perfection. 
We love to view the perfect man, the perfect tree, the 
perfect flower. Coupled with the selfishness of our de- 
praved natures, always blind to our own defects, we are 
often without sympathy for others afflicted like our- 
selves ; and it is no wonder that under the rule of some 
savage and semi-civilized nations the defective were 
neglected or destroyed. Atheism and infidelity would 
not only establish the theory of the "survival of the 
fittest" by the neglect, but probably by the destruction, 
of the deficient. We kill the crippled horse, and why 
not the crippled man? The Hindoo mother hangs the 
deformed babe in a basket to a forest tree, to be eaten 



224 The Masterwheel 

by the vultures; and why not cast our blind or crippled 
baby to the dogs ? 

Ordinarily in Christian countries parents cling more 
closely to the defective child ; but outside of Christianity 
there have been but few civilizations which have ever 
extended any charitable protection to the defective 
classes. Even in Christian countries the blind, the 
cripple, and the diseased are sometimes seen upon the 
streets, helpless and uncared for; but I apprehend that 
what we see are exceptions, and mainly those who prefer 
to risk personal to institutional charity. In the main, 
the greatest compliment to our Christian civilization is 
that the defective classes are not allowed to suffer. 
What is it that, contrary to the spirit and custom of past 
ages, has wrought this mighty change in the minds and 
hearts of men, naturally averse and often cruel to human 
defects? What is it that has transformed taste and 
sense from the critical to the sympathetic, and melted 
the hard and selfish heart into loving care and protection 
for the most unfortunate class of human beings? The 
spirit and example of the crucified Christ, who was 
"touched with the feeling of our infirmities." 

If any one wants to study this love and catch its in- 
spiration, let him visit the hospital and the infirmary, the 
school of the blind and of the deaf and dumb, the asylum 
for the insane, as well as the home of the orphan and 
the place for the poor. Behold that medical attention 
at the hands of noble physicians ; that diligent care and 
sleepless ministration of the trained nurse; that affec- 
tionate patience and skill of the faithful teacher; that 
vigilant guardianship over the harmless imbecile or the 
dangerous maniac — all supported and sustained by 
Christian sentiment and civic aid! Almost every phy- 
sician, nurse, teacher, or guard in these institutions is a 



Love of the Afflicted 225 

Christian; and if there are any places on earth where 
love has a greater burden and reigns with purer sway, 
it is round about these institutions which enshrine the 
spirit of a Christian civilization. In countries where 
exists that loathsome disease, leprosy, which renders its 
victims hideous to the eye, they have now provided 
the lazar house or asylum for lepers, where formerly 
these poor wretches were driven from the sight of men. 
The spirit of the Moravian missionaries who sacrifice 
themselves by entering these lazar houses, that they 
may reach and evangelize the victims of this loathsome 
disease, is the product of Christianity, and it is the 
characteristic spirit of the Christian era. 

There are many people, defective and indigent, who do 
better than become objects of public or private charity, 
and for such we have the greatest admiration when, 
in spite of misfortune, they live and succeed without help. 
Poverty and affliction are in fact not always misfortunes. 
The sense of poverty has driven many a brave man to 
work and kept many a proud man from the poorhouse; 
and the sense of defect or deformity has impelled many 
similar spirits to make great discoveries and inventions, 
and to attain noble accomplishments in the arts and 
sciences. The two men planting corn in the field, the 
one with feet and no hands carrying the one who had 
hands and no feet, who did the planting, illustrate the 
ingenuity which is born of necessity in minds determined 
to overcome the disabilities of defect and misfortune. 
Alexander Pope's deformity probably stimulated his 
genius to the achievement of his fame and the beauty 
of his verse; for he said to himself: "If my person be 
crooked, my verses shall be straight." 

Let none despair of self-help and self-sufficiency so 

long as he has the genius and the courage to put even 
15 



226 The Masterwheel 

a remnant of ability to the test. De Quincey says: 
"Many a man has risen to eminence under the powerful 
reactions of his mind in fierce counter-agency to the 
scorn of the unworthy, daily evoked by his personal de- 
fects, who with a handsome person would have sunk 
into the luxury of a careless life under the tranquilizing 
smiles of continual admiration." Beauty, wealth, and 
education are often the sources of greatest failure; but 
how admirable and inspiring to see men and women 
without those advantages making their living, doing 
good, and even rising to eminence by their own exer- 
tion and in spite of their misfortunes ! 

Nevertheless, there are many of the defective who 
are utterly helpless and dependent upon our charities. 
The worst defects often lie in the brain and heart. It 
is not every man that is born with a great mind, a strong 
heart, and a mighty will. Sometimes there is great in- 
tellect, without the motive power of a strong will. 
Again, there is the motive power of ambition without in- 
tellect to sustain it; and still again, there may be the 
mighty will and great intellect without the strong heart. 
Many people are so feebly made up in all these faculties 
that they are objects of pity and compassion; and when 
their physical defect is added to their mental, emotional, 
or volitional defects, their case is indeed helpless and 
deplorable. There should be charity and consideration 
toward the internal, as well as the external, deficiencies 
of human nature. We easily sympathize with the bro- 
ken arm, the crooked leg, the blind eye. Why not with 
the weak mind, the insufficient courage, the imbecile 
will? 

That helpless cripple in the hospital, that hopeless 
idiot or that raging maniac in the asylum, is a man for 
all that; and, behind his broken body or his imbecile 



Love of the Afflicted 227 

brain, breathes an immortal spirit that must live for- 
ever. God has infinite passion for these poor, helpless, 
weak, deficient, half-made people, and he loves and 
watches over them as tenderly as over the prince upon 
the throne. They were made in God's image and like- 
ness, however marred and dimmed; and when they slip 
from the infirmities or hallucinations of their disordered 
brains, they return to the God who fashioned their 
spirits, as perfect and pure as Elijah, Enoch, or even 
Moses, who closed his career in physical perfection with 
"his natural force unabated and his eye undimmed." 
There will be no cripples, idiots, or maniacs in heaven. 



LOVE OF THE POOR 




ERE is a representation of abject poverty — a 
mother and children in rags, hungry, cold, 
and comfortless — the cupboard empty, the 
fire low, the babe upon a bed of straw, the 
dog and cat starved, the rats running riot in the room, 
and the proverbial wolf at the door. It could not be 
much worse ; and yet there is one bright side to poverty. 
It is seen in the angels of charity, in the persons of two 
women, who are coming into the room with food and 
raiment for the relief of these poor. 

Love for the needy poor is what we call charity, and 
charity is another translation of the word "love." It is 
very hard for many people to love their needy poor. 
Many who have been reared in wealth and luxury and 
pampered with pride and self-importance, and even some 
who have struggled up from poverty and obscurity to 
fortune and honor have a profound contempt for poor 
folks. All of us dread the undesirable lot of indigence ; 
and the "poorhouse" is the synonym for utter wretched- 
ness and disgrace. If it were left to many people, the 
needy poor would perish from the face of the earth as 
fast as they develop. The sentiment of atheism and 
infidelity is the "survival of the fittest ;" and human pride 
and selfishness have always exclaimed : "Let every man 
take care of himself, and the Devil catch the hindmost." 
(228) 



Love of the Poor 231 

Part of the glory of Christianity consists in love and 
consideration for the poor. Both the Old and the New 
Testament lay emphasis upon the fact that the poor 
belong to God. "He that giveth to the poor lendeth 
to the Lord." The eye of God is always upon the poor, 
as upon the falling sparrow. He hears their cry, as 
that of the young ravens; and he has ordained that 
those whom he has blessed with favor and plenty shall 
remember and feed his poor. 

According to the universal law of degree and variety, 
God has created inequalities among men, as he has 
among all other orders of being; and, in his all-wise 
providence, has left some to be poor as well as some to 
be rich. All cannot be rich ; and if God has left to the 
"hewer of wood and the drawer of water" to do service 
for the strong and the great, he has taken particular 
pains to enact the law of charity and protection for the 
benefit of the needy. 

There is no difference in heaven between the rich 
and the poor, and God makes no difference between 
them in the honor he accords to fidelity. The poor wid- 
ow in casting her two mites into the treasury did more, 
in the estimation of the Master, than all they that cast 
in of their abundance. Poor Lazarus, lying at the rich 
man's gate, full of sores, ministered to only by street 
dogs, and feeding upon the crumbs that fell from the 
rich man's table, died and was buried; but a cohort of 
angels, flashing their jeweled wings upon the place of 
his poverty and misery, escorted him to paradise. God 
is no respecter of persons. He says : "The rich and the 
poor meet together : The Lord is the maker of them all." 

One of the crowning glories of our civilization is our 
organized and legislated charities. We still have the 
poor with us, and shall continue to have them until the 



232 The Masterwheel 

millennium; but the conditions of poverty and misery 
are infinitely better now than when Christ was on earth. 
There is not a civilized country on the globe, not a state 
or territory in this Union, not a town or a city, not a 
denomination or church, not a sodality or a society, in 
which there is not some organized charity for the poor. 
There may be millions of the poor in the world not yet 
directly reached by these institutions, but the great 
mass of them are indirectly cared for in some way and 
to some degree. There is not a state or province that 
has not its poorhouse ; and there is perhaps not a city or 
town that has not a board of relief for the poor. Thou- 
sands of schools for orphans and homes for widows are 
maintained by Christian denominations and benevolent 
orders. Thousands of wealthy and generous people 
give liberally to help the indigent; and some of them 
have built institutions for their education . and relief. 
The history of the world has never recorded such an 
age of benevolence; and one of the grandest move- 
ments known in the annals of time is the Salvation 
Army, whose work is to feed the poor and lift up the 
fallen masses from ignorance, poverty, and vice. Truly 
Christ said, "The poor have the gospel preached unto 
them;" and he who fed the thousands with five loaves 
and two little fishes is yet performing the miracle of the 
centuries by carrying the bread of life to millions of the 
poor through the loving service of his people. 

The treatment of poverty is the problem of the age, 
and it is one of the hardest to solve. The Utopian 
dreams of philanthropists and political economists have 
conceived many panaceas for poverty, but no such 
schemes will ever banish poverty or relieve the world of 
its afflictions. Anarchy may bring chaos and a uni- 
versal equality for a day, by the equal distribution of 



Love of the Poor 233 

all property; but the inequality of intelligence, ability, 
and motive power would make equality of physical 
resources impossible of retention for any length of 
time, and poverty worse than ever would follow. So- 
cialism, with its joint ownership of real estate and 
the governmental employment of the unemployed, is 
a plausible paternal scheme; but it could only modify 
poverty by making it the common burden of all, by a 
law which would encourage the dependence of the indi- 
gent upon the thrifty, who alone support government. 
It is contrary to the natural order of social relationship, 
in which ownership of property and success in business 
depend upon individual effort; and hence all men will 
continue, under the natural compulsion of individual 
responsibility, to secure their own livelihood. Com- 
munity of goods in the first church at Jerusalem was a 
benevolent and temporary expedient to meet a pending 
emergency, and was not practiced anywhere else. There 
have been some orders or societies which worked upon 
socialistic principles ; but they did nothing for the prog- 
ress of the world and make no history. Upon any gen- 
eral or universal plan in the social relation and govern- 
ment of mankind, the scheme is impossible; and hence, 
according to their several ability, there will always con- 
tinue among men the distinction of success and failure, 
prominence and obscurity, wealth and poverty. 

Often amid the haunts of helpless poverty lie the jew- 
els of genius and immortality, unpolished and obscured 
by misfortune, unable to shine for want of motive and en- 
couragement ; and here may Christian charity dig from 
the mine its rarest gems. Jerry McAuley and his wife, the 
great slum reformers of New York City, nobly illustrate 
the truth of what has been said. It may be, as Addison 
says, that sometimes "poverty palls the most generous 



234 The Masterwheel 

spirit, cows industry, and casts resolution itself into de- 
spair;" and therefore the more need for the mighty 
ministry of love in Christian charity, to lift up the fallen 
and helpless and help them on to success and happiness. 

Society and government ought to favor the poor mass- 
es by restricting the grasp of the millionaire monopolist 
upon the industries and necessities of life. The char- 
itable spirit, permeating the life of a Christian civiliza- 
tion, ought to fight every social or business power which 
goes beyond the limit of moderation and oppresses the 
masses, whether by tyrannical authority, or by the ab- 
sorption of physical resources. Plutocracy creates in- 
fidelity, bitterness, and anarchy among the poor and 
oppressed. 

Jesus says : "Ye have the poor always with you." He 
knew, therefore, there would always be poverty. Its 
mission undoubtedly is to elicit charity and cultivate love. 
We love the souls of men the more by loving their bodies, 
their hungry mouths and their ragged forms, and the 
poverty-stricken masses have no confidence in that love 
that does not feed, clothe, and warm their needy bodies. 
During a great famine among the Ongales of India, the 
Baptist missionaries devoted themselves to the physical 
wants of these people; and when the famine was over 
there were 17,000 converts in their mission. 

Lord Bacon well said: "In all human gifts and pas- 
sions, though they advance nature, yet they are subject 
to excess; but charity alone admits of no excess. By 
aspiring to be like God in power, the angels trans- 
gressed and fell; by aspiring to be like God in knowl- 
edge, man transgressed and fell; by aspiring to be like 
God in goodness or love, neither man or angel ever did 
or ever shall transgress. For unto that imitation we 
all are called." A cup of cold water given in charity 



Love of the Poor 235 

shall not lose its reward; and a lifetime spent in loving 
service to the poor cannot be too much with him who 
said: "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye did it unto me." 

Christ himself "for our sakes became poor, that we 
through his poverty might be rich." The Son of Man, 
cradled in a manger at his birth, and who, in after life, 
had "not where to lay his head," was the impersonation 
of love. "He went about doing good," ministering to 
the wants of the unfortunate and distressed, and preach- 
ing the gospel to the poor. Those who love Christ truly 
cannot fail to appreciate the importance of the work he 
has left for them to do in casting out the gospel net into 
the great sea of humanity that he loved. 




LOVE OF THE CRIMINAL 




HIS brings me to the consideration of those 
known as the vicious or criminal classes, for 
whom we should have love and charity. We 
consider now the courthouse, the jail, the 
penitentiary, the gibbet, the headman's ax, the guillo- 
tine. Guilt and punishment at the hands of the law, 
the protection of society, the abhorrence of evil and evil 
people; the judge, the jury, the sheriff — these are the 
objects that now come into view ; and before us rise the 
hideous forms of the murderer, the burglar, the robber, 
the adulterer, the liar — all the train of evildoers that 
curse society. What shall we do with them? Can we 
love them and do them good, even though we must pun- 
ish them, and sometimes destroy them? Human na- 
ture rises up in revolt and cries for vengeance upon 
crime; and often the mob takes justice into its hands, 
and with frenzied fury inflicts summarily the most cruel 
punishments upon the victims of its madness. It is 
often astounding to see the haste of hate as it retaliates 
upon wrong, or the spirit of retribution as it is quick 
to mete out vengeance. "An eye for an eye and a tooth 
for a tooth," is the maxim of the world ; and resentment 
everywhere strikes back at the slightest infringement 
upon human right and dignity. How impatient we are 
of injury, how sensitive to insult, and how ready we 
are to take revenge? 
(236) 




Love of the Criminal. 



Love of the Criminal 239 

It was not until Christ came into the world that we 
learned to distinguish between sin and the sinner, crime 
and the criminal, or that we learned to love the sinner 
and the criminal while we hate the sin and crime. The 
holiness or justice of God abhors sin, revolts and reacts 
against it, and demands punishment of it; but the love 
and mercy of God compassionates and forgives the sin- 
ner. It was thus upon the cross that sin was punished 
in theatoning Redeemer, and that God showed his love 
for the sinner; and though our sins be as scarlet, they 
are, through faith in Christ, made as white as snow. 
Christ and him crucified is sin's satisfaction to God's 
holiness or justice; and it is through the Redeemer's 
satisfaction to law that God can love the sinner, and 
forgives sin's penalty paid on the cross. What a splen- 
did illustration of this fact is seen in the salvation of the 
thief on the cross ! He was the first trophy of the cross. 
A thief, a robber, hanging by the Saviour's side, railing 
and blaspheming a moment ago, yet repenting, believ- 
ing, and praying now : "Lord, remember me when thou 
comest into thy kingdom." "To-day shalt thou be with 
me in paradise !" was the loving reply ; and on that day, 
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the redeemed 
and blood-washed throng, with Jesus himself, that 
"thief " took his place in glory ! 

The cross did it, and from that moment the world 
changed front. From that moment love began to con- 
quer the human heart, and the white-winged angel of 
mercy lighted upon the pinnacle of the temple of justice 
— cold-blooded and heartless down to that time; and 
since that day Mercy and Justice have shaken hands. 
Peace and Righteousness have kissed each other over 
the form of the penitent sinner, however dark and 
damning his crimes. The Christian is a unique char- 



240 The Masterwheel 

acter, impersonating the love of Christ for the lost, the 
least, and the lowest; and there is no sin so vile, no 
iniquity so base, that the true Christian cannot forgive 
and at the same time love the offender, however much 
he abhors the offense. This is Christian love, in the 
purest and loftiest sense, put to the test of compassion 
for the vicious and fallen masses ; and the tens of thou- 
sands of men and women toiling in the slums, visiting 
the jails and penitentiaries, pleading with the con- 
demned victim of the gallows, dying in the jungles of 
heathenism, murdered and eaten by cannibals, demon- 
strate that love which, through Christ, can hate sin and 
yet compassionate the sinner, and upon repentance for- 
give and forget his iniquities. 

Now all this does not abate human justice, but it tem- 
pers it with mercy. Crime against human law has no 
way of escape from justice. There is no one that can 
take the place of the culprit at the bar of a human court. 
He has no substitute; he must suffer his own penalty; 
and while justice is not revengeful, it must be vindica- 
tory. The safety of human society depends upon the 
supremacy of law; and while it cannot prevent crime, 
nor reform the criminal, it must punish him. Justice 
is not a matter of benevolence; it is blindfolded and 
evenhanded, and must swing its balance with exact 
scale for the good of the honest, the true, and the peace- 
able. Nevertheless, the Christian holds out the hand 
of charity to the criminal against all cruel and excessive 
punishment, and it holds forth the bread of life to the 
victim of the crime in the meshes of the law, divine or 
human. Christian love goes to the prisoner's cell and 
to the chain gang, and stands beneath the gibbet; and 
while human justice punishes the body, and divine justice 



Love of the Criminal 241 

dooms the soul, love points to the cross whence the thief 
went to paradise. 

It is startling to read the story of human cruelty to 
the criminal classes in ages gone by. Truly "Man's in- 
humanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." 
The French Bastile and the London Tower, even in 
Christian ages, make us shudder at the mention of their 
inhuman barbarities ; but they were erected in an age of 
ecclesiastical perversion and despotism, not in a period of 
evangelical liberty, light, and love. Beside them and 
back of them, in every country and age, the iron manacle, 
the filthy dungeon, the absence of light, with the deadly 
damp of starvation, the rack and torture, with the hor- 
rors of a hopeless and merciless despair, give us some 
conception of prison life to the criminal ; and the refine- 
ments of cruelty, by which he was made to suffer or die, 
make the blood run cold with freezing terror. Who could 
tell the story of Roman, Grecian, Babylonian, Hindoo, 
Chinese, or Egyptian imprisonment and punishment at 
the hands of judicial or political power? Think of the 
poor galley slaves ! Think of the Inquisition ! Think of 
Siberia ! Think of the Dry Tortugas ! Think of Jud- 
son in the hands of the king of Ava ! Hell itself could 
not be much worse than human cruelty and torture in 
prison life and punishment formerly administered to 
criminals and heretics. 

It has been the province of modern civilization grad- 
ually to break into the dark and deadly cells of prison 
life and ameliorate the sufferings and punishments of the 
criminal, as well as administer spiritual consolation and 
hope to the perpetrators of vice and crime. An enlight- 
ened civilization, permeated with a Christian spirit, has 
ventilated and illuminated the prison, abolished inhuman 
strictures upon the prisoner, and instituted a healthful 
16 



242 The Masterwheel 

and reasonable service to the government ; and so all ex- 
cessive and cruel punishments have been abolished. With 
little exception, there is not a civilized country but what 
has abolished its harsh and inhuman treatment of vice 
and crime; and the poor, condemned wretch, suffering 
protracted imprisonment and servitude, or sentenced to 
die, is made to feel at last that justice is tempered with 
mercy and backed by reason. The branding iron, the 
public stocks, flogging in the navy and in the troops, 
all species of torture to exact testimony, the gag, the 
headsman's ax, the drawing and quartering, public exe- 
cutions, and the thumbscrew are things of the past, 
relics of barbarous and inhuman customs and ages, even 
in some so-called Christian countries. It is enough for 
the criminal to get justice in the punishment of his 
crime ; it has been the part of Christian philanthropy to 
destroy, so far as possible, the idea that the accused or 
convicted was entitled to no human consideration, as 
an added horror to his punishment. Unfortunately, 
charity has sometimes gone too far in the direction of 
the other extreme, in cheating justice and in endanger- 
ing society by the unintentional encouragement of crime. 
More than all this, Christian philanthropy has entered 
upon every scheme not only for the amelioration of 
criminal confinement and punishment, but for the refor- 
mation of the criminal and the vicious. Institutions are 
everywhere established for the refuge of fallen women, 
who have the gospel preached to them, among whom are 
hundreds of converts and restorations to life and rela- 
tions resulting often in happy marriages and steadfast re- 
ligious integrity in the families thus created. The noblest 
work is being done among the slums and brothels of our 
great cities, by institutional churches and evangelistic 
labors, to reclaim vicious men, women, and children ; and 



Love of the Criminal 243 

reform schools and workhouses have been erected for 
the benefit of the young in vice, crime, and idleness, with 
splendid results in favor of intelligence, morality, and 
religion. As said before, our public schools, another re- 
sult of Christian civilization, have not only alleviated the 
evils of indigence and defectiveness, but they have done 
much to lift the criminal and vicious masses into higher 
and better life, through the education and refinement of 
the children born and bred in the atmosphere of igno- 
rance, irreligion, and iniquity. To be sure, there is a 
vast work of reformation yet to be accomplished in be- 
half of the criminal classes. The saloon, the gambling 
hell, and the brothel — forms of instituted and licensed 
vice — are always planted in the very center of vicious 
and criminal communities; and in partnership with all 
the advanced movements of Christian civilization and 
progress is the prohibition war which, amid varied suc- 
cess and discouragement, is being carried with grad- 
ual but mighty conquest against the organized forces of 
vice and crime. The battle for reformation is fierce and 
protracted, but the victory is, sooner or later, certain. 

Into almost every precinct and hole of vice and crime 
the missionary and the evangelist, the Sunday school 
teacher and the angel of mercy, carry the torch of en- 
lightenment and religion. Some of the worst criminals 
go from prison to heaven, or come home converted men 
and women, to fight the hard battle of life against temp- 
tation and public aversion ; and one of the finest illustra- 
tions of the morally sublime is to behold a man or wom- 
an dragged from the cesspool of sin and degradation, or 
released from the disgrace of punishment for crime, 
struggling almost against fate to live the life of virtue 
and honor and to win an honest livelihood. Often he 
has no friends from the ranks of the world; but for 



244 The Masterwheel 

the few Christians who love his soul and seek his ref- 
ormation and help, he would be practically hopeless. 
In the face of public aversion and prejudice, it is hard 
to tell which is the sublimer spectacle, the once dis- 
graced and discouraged criminal struggling for life and 
honor, or the loving philanthropist trying to help, lift up, 
and put back the fallen to such a condition. 

One of the peculiar features of mean and fallen human 
nature is to condemn others for the thing we allow in 
ourselves. Hence we are commanded to judge not, 
that we be not judged by our own judgment. The self- 
centered sinner is the meanest and severest judge of 
another sinner; and it is not until, in the light of the 
gospel, we reach, like Paul, love for sinners, that we 
discover ourselves the "chief" of sinners, saved by 
grace and not by our own merits. It takes the grace 
of God, gratuitously conferred upon us for salvation, 
and spiritually wrought within us for sanctification, to 
make us sing : 

Give me to feel another's woe, 
To hide the fault I see ; 

That mercy I to others show, 
That mercy show to me. 

Self-love, self-righteousness, self-importance, can 
never know anything of the spirit or sacrifice of Chris- 
tian love and philanthropy; and so long as a shred of 
the cold legalistic or pharisaic spirit lives in a man or 
woman, it will be "eye for eye, and tooth for tooth/' and 
let the indigent, the defective, and the vicious look out 
for themselves or perish. Such people are liberal in 
building colleges, courthouses, jails, penitentiaries, or 
gibbets ; but they never build reformatories, asylums, or 
poorhouses. They build monuments, even to the proph- 
ets their fathers slew ; but they have only a potter's field 



Love of the Criminal 245 

for Lazarus, the tombs for the demoniac, and a cross 
for the thief, only stones with which to kill heretics and 
to beat to death the poor woman taken in adultery, when 
not one of them, when put to the test, could throw a stone, 
by reason of his own guilt. 

The chief direction of charity in favor of the criminal 
classes is toward the children of these people. Christ's 
invitation to little ones to come unto him was directed 
as much to the children of publicans and sinners as to 
those of the noblest Jewish families — as much to the 
children of the streets and alleys, of the slums and broth- 
els, as to the children of the mansion and the palace. It 
is in the child that vice and crime begin ; and under bad 
environment and example, it is from the children of 
every such generation that our criminals of every class 
and grade come. The Earl of Shaftesbury said : "Of all 
the adult male criminals in London, not two in a hun- 
dred who have entered upon a course of crime have lived 
an honest life up to the age of twenty; almost all who 
enter upon a course of crime do so between the ages of 
eight and sixteen. " What is true of London is true of 
Paris and New York and every other city; and if ever 
love had a special mission in its combat with the mon- 
sters of vice and crime, it lies in snatching the young 
victims from the grasp of their surroundings before it 
is too late to care for or help their malady. Robert 
Raikes took practically the first step in the direction of 
this primary and essential work in establishing the 
Sunday school. In my humble opinion the mission Sun- 
day school, planted in the midst of the poor and vicious 
masses, has accomplished more good in rescuing the 
race from the effect of vice and crime than has any other 
agency; and it is within the power of every Christian 
community to do this vastly important work. 



LOVE THE LAW OF LIFE 




HE accompanying illustration presents the 
philosophic view of love. The law and the 
cross agree in teaching supreme love to 
God and unselfish love to man; and both 
Moses and Jesus affirm that the man who exercises such 
love shall live. The cross is the law fulfilled for man, 
and secures for him through the death of Christ the love 
he did not have under that law. Moses has his right 
hand on the law which he gave, and his left on the 
cross to which he points as the end of the law for right- 
eousness to the believer ; Christ has his left hand on the 
law and his right on the cross by which he fulfilled the 
law and gave righteousness to the believer. Christ is 
the Rex (King) who satisfied the Lex (Law) in Love, 
and who brought together Sinai and Calvary. The 
man kneeling represents obedience and faith. 

There are a number of laws which involve our being 
and existence. We eat and drink, think and feel, will 
and act, in our individual and social relationships, in 
what we call a state of life ; and until we die we are gov- 
erned by the natural laws of our being in all these rela- 
tionships. In the sunshine of health, prosperity, and 
peace, we naturally enjoy life according to the exertion 
of our capacities and the favor of our environment. 
Amid the clouds and shadows of adversity, suffering 
and sorrow, we endure the hardships and trials of life ; 
(246) 




Love the Law of Life. 



Love the Law of Life 249 

and amid the alternations of sunshine and darkness, we 
live, die, and pass away from this stage of existence into 
the unknown and the eternal. 

The Bible recognizes this state of life as one of death. 
The "natural man" is "alive" and yet "dead." This is 
the woeful paradox of human existence. We are repre- 
sented as born dead — conceived in sin and brought forth 
in iniquity — and by nature the children of wrath — and 
so living as still "dead in trespasses and in sins." In 
order to create an antithetical paradox, "dead and yet 
alive," we must be born again, made anew in Christ Je- 
sus, so as to be alive unto God. Regeneration is a trans- 
formation of our being from spiritual death unto life 
eternal; and the sole medium through which this trans- 
formation takes place is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Author and Source of Life. Faith, hope, and love are 
interdependent ; for faith and hope without love are not. 
Love is the consummation of faith and hope, and the 
great essential principle and evidence of the new life. 
A religion that does not go as far as love is not Chris- 
tian, and hence love is the fundamental law of life in the 
Christian dispensation. 

A lawyer asked Christ this question: "What shall I 
do to inherit eternal life?" Christ answered him by an- 
other question: "What is written in the law? How read- 
est thou?" The lawyer replied: "Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and 
thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou hast answered right," 
said the Master; "this do and thou shalt live." 

Where supreme love to God and unselfish love to man 
exist there is life — life eternal. Such love is "the end 
of the law for righteousness" without any need for 
Christ; but such love must have been perfect, personal, 



250 The Masterwheel 

and perpetual in the life of him who lives by it, without 
any trait of sin by nature, or prior transgression, and 
continue to the end of existence. 

Christ demonstrated by one of the purest examples 
of morality and legalism, in the case of the rich young 
ruler, that no such man ever lived ; and there never has 
been but one such person who perpetually loved God su- 
premely and man unselfishly. Adam must have had 
such love before the fall; but in the fall of Adam and 
the ruin of his posterity such love was lost to the hu- 
man race, and without Christ it could never have been 
restored. 

The purest and best characters of all history furnish 
no illustration of such love out of Christ ; and even those 
in Christ Jesus have never been able to live a perfect 
life. Even the apostle Paul prior to his conversion was, 
as "touching the righteousness which is in the law, 
blameless ;" when he made a spiritual discovery of him- 
self in the light of Christ's love, he pronounced himself 
the "chief of sinners. " So of the lofty Cornelius, who, 
with all his ethical character, his legalistic almsgiving, 
and pious praying, had to be saved by faith in Christ 
as any other sinner. 

John says: "We know that we have passed out of 
death into life, because we love the brethren." Again 
he says: "Love is of God, and every one that loveth is 
begotten of God, and knoweth God." Again : "He that 
loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Wher- 
ever love is there is life, and wherever life is there is 
love. Life and love in the spiritual world are correla- 
tives. He that hates his brother hates God, and so 
abides in death. In Christ love became the subject of 
a "new commandment," because the world had never 
realized the old commandment under the law; and only 



Love the Law of Life 251 

in Christ is the fulfillment of this commandment made 
possible. 

There are many forms of love common to the human 
and animal nature which are solely characteristic of 
our natural affinities and relationships, but which are 
not evidence of spiritual life. We may be highly moral 
and scrupulously correct in our life and have it not, for 
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
enter into the kingdom of heaven." To some who have 
done many wonderful works in his name the Master will 
say: "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work 
iniquity." Paul tells us the secret of this startling rev- 
elation. We may speak with the tongues of men and 
angels; have the gift of prophecy, and understand all 
mysteries and knowledge; have faith so that we could 
remove mountains; bestow all our goods to feed the 
poor, and give our bodies to be burned — and yet with- 
out love all is sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. 

Did such love exist even in proximate perfection, 
it would supersede the necessity for all statutory legis- 
lation, criminal code, courthouses, jails, penitentiaries, 
and the gallows. Every true Christian partially or 
more perfectly possesses this divine attribute; and, 
though imperfect, it is this love which constitutes the 
only bond of peace which unites the human family and 
elevates it to the promise of the future. 

By all means let us have more love and more to love. 
We cultivate the intellect ; why not the heart ? Intellect 
without feeling simply is a form of most dangerous 
brutishness. He that would grapple hearts to him must 
himself have a heart ; he that would win love must have 
love. Domination over man is not given to the merely 
clever but to the truly loving. Sympathy, devotion, sac- 
rifice — all synonyms of love — win more hearts than 



252 The Masterwheel 

brain, intellect, and reason. The true test of art and 
letters is not cleverness but kindness The men who 
hold the world's best regard to-day are not the states- 
men, the warriors, or the financiers, but the poets, the 
prophets, the mystics, the saints, the men of heart and 
soul, not of head and hand. Men are being guided in 
what they do and think more and more by the example 
of those who lived and died to better them. Lamartine 
called Christianity a revolution in favor of the weak; 
he might have said love and justice. Christ is reigning 
more than ever in men's hearts, and where Christ is 
there, too, must be love. 

It could not be otherwise. We are mounting toward 
heaven, not descending to hell. God forbid that any 
man should say the world is worse to-day than it was 
when the Redeemer went to Calvary and the sublime 
tragedy of Golgotha was played out. Nay, it is better 
— far better — for man is learning what love really 
means. It isn't simply a passion of the sexes; it is the 
essence of God; it is one of the lights that guide us on 
the way to immortality ; it is man's humanity to man to 
make countless thousands rejoice; it is the masterwheel 
that imparts God's power and Spirit to the universal 
machine He created ages ago and whose people Christ 
came to redeem ages hence. 



Whatsoever things are lovely. — Phil, iv* I' 

(253) 



PART III. 

NATURAL LOVE 



In peace, Love tunes the shepherd 's reed ; 

In war, he mounts the ivarrior^s steed; 

In halls ; in gay attire is seen ; 

In hamlets, dances on the green. 

Love r tiles the court, the camp, the grove, 

And men below and saints above, 

For love is heaven, and heaven is love. 

—Scott, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel? 



LOVE OF LIFE 




HIS chapter's illustration shows the instinct- 
ive love of life which pervades the existence 
of the human race. The scene is that of 
wreck at sea, where, amid the turbulent bil- 
lows that dash upon their victims, an exhausted and 
half-dead man is clinging for life to a spar and waving 
a handkerchief to a tempest-tossed ship in the dis- 
tance, from which a lifeboat has been lowered and is 
making its way to the rescue of the poor fellow display- 
ing the signal of distress. "What will a man give for 
his life?" is an unanswerable question propounded by 
the Master himself. This man waving the handker- 
chief has thrown away all, and is clutching for his life 
to the spar; while hard beside him is a man in the bil- 
lows, holding on to his gold, and yet sinking beneath the 
waves. He too loves life, but loves it only for its sordid 
purposes; and in clutching his base idol, he forgets to 
cling to the means of life and signal for the help that 
would save him. What a picture it is of the sinner 
convicted and crying to Christ for salvation ; and of the 
sinner clinging to the things of this life, and sinking 
down to hell ! 

Life is a magnificent heritage and a solemn trust. 

To the animal life has no rational object or meaning. 

However noble or prized, the animal, except for man's 

use, had never lived. God made the universe for man 

(256) 



Love of Life 259 

— the earth to live upon, and to own and subdue — the 
sun, moon, and stars to give him light by day and night ; 
and in the distinction between man's importance and 
all creation besides, whether animate or inanimate, we 
discover the value and purpose of human life. Created 
in God's image and breathing the breath of immortality, 
he was only short of God in the absolute and the in- 
finite; and yet his life was stamped with the signet of 
eternity and of absolute and infinite value. 

Man's life was given to express the image and glory 
of God, to develop and beautify the earth on which we 
live, and to enjoy the benefit and blessing of relation- 
ship between the finite and the infinite; and but for sin 
and death the earthly Eden had been still the abode of 
love and companionship between God and man. Par- 
adise lost, however, only gave way to paradise re- 
gained ; and the beautiful and glorious image marred in 
the first Adam has been restored in the second Adam. 
Human life has been lifted to celestial importance and 
excellence above the earthly; and man's loftiest destiny 
is not only to live forever, but to compass the realm of 
endless bliss and of infinite development to his capaci- 
ties in a new heaven and a new earth. He is not here 
to stay, but here to learn of God in the academy of 
time, and to graduate in the university of eternity. Life 
yonder depends upon the life here; and the only pur- 
pose of this life is to so learn and love God as to sub- 
serve the eternal purpose and glory of God in the life 
to come. Surely every man ought to love life beyond 
every other gift of God. 

To love life truly, we should make the most of it for 
good. They live longest who live best. A short life, 
well lived, is longer than the longest badly lived or lived 
for naught. The octogenarian does not live out half his 



260 The Masterwheel 

days who lives for evil or who lives for nothing. Some 
who cling closest to the present and who hate worst to 
leave it have not lived at all. They have all to leave and 
nothing to gain. But he who has filled up the measure 
of his days for good can afford to exchange this for 
the higher life. He leaves behind him a rich inherit- 
ance for his fellows, and lays up a richer heritage for 
himself in eternity. His is true love of life consummated 
in deathless good here and glory hereafter. 

The Christian, above all, should love this life. It is 
springtime to an endless summer — not, as to the sinner, 
the autumn, fading to an endless winter. He can make 
every hour on the sundial of time count for earthly 
good and endless result, and in addition to his earthly 
joy pile up daily treasures in heaven. To such life, 
through trial and to the grave, is but a gladsome jour- 
ney ; and though the flesh may shiver at the approach of 
the grim monster, "the valley of the shadow of death" is 
lighted with the promise and glow of the celestial reward. 
Some are even glad, at the weary end, to lay down the 
life they have loved so well, to welcome through the 
gates the grander life eternal. 

Some men fling away this life and the hope of that 
to come. Such do not love life in the light of its value 
and purpose, but only in the light of its selfish gratifi- 
cations, or in utter indifference to its infinite end. Some 
idle it away, or wickedly abuse it. To others it is but a 
gala day of pleasure and amusement, or only the harvest 
time of treasure and honor; and about the time their 
pride and ambition settle down in the snug inheritance 
of this life, the body goes to the grave and the soul to its 
endless account with the God who gave it. Wasted 
life — and what a waste! How constantly true of the 
multitudes who lavish life upon their selfishness, or fling 



Love of Life 261 

it away upon worldliness, or who debauch it in vice, and 
then die dissatisfied with the results of their existence. 
Only a Macbeth, to whom life becomes a failure, or a 
curse, can say: 

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 
And then is heard no more. 

True life depends upon the purpose in living. With 
millions it is simply all of life to live, or all of death to 
die, without any purpose beyond the present. Others 
estimate life upon the basis of merchandise or manu- 
facture, of houses and lands, or of other earthly consid- 
erations of value. They are daily taking stock of their 
temporal possessions, but never take down the deeds 
and results of life — never overhaul existence — to dis- 
cover what they are doing, what achieving, whither 
drifting, with reference to the soul in its account with 
God and eternity. Most men are simply considering 
the profit and loss of everything except life in its rela- 
tions with God. They are letting life take care of itself. 
The soul is left to drift unconscious with the body in the 
great current of time, oblivious of the great end of life ; 
and only the comparative few stop to think with Bailey, 
that 

Life's but a means unto an end. 

Life is what we make it. The life of an imbecile may 
not be valuable or available for much; but if it is the 
best he can live according to his conceptions of purpose 
and duty, he has the sanction and reward of conscience 
and God. I would rather live and die an idiot than be 
the genius who, with all his abilities and opportunities, 
saw life only through the glass colored by avarice or 
ambition. Some have very low ideals, and behold life 



262 The Masterwheel 

only through the medium of base or clouded views. 
Others see it through glory glasses. Whether in time 
or eternity, in heaven or hell, life will be the result 
largely of our ideals. There are giants and pygmies, 
in good and bad, according as they have idealized life; 
and between a Paul and a Judas, or between a million- 
aire and a tramp, the hiatus of distinction is but the 
difference between ideals. 

The best way to conceive of the value and purpose 
of life is to behold the estimate God puts upon it. The 
cross of Calvary is the symbol of the soul's infinite dig- 
nity. God estimated that a human life was worth the 
sacrifice of his only-begotten Son; and as our redemp- 
tion, so he values our life. Heaven and glory are the 
crown of life to the saved and the faithful. For man, 
in the light of God's infinite estimate of human life, to 
undervalue himself is to wrong his own soul. Truly 
does Christ put the awful question: "If a man gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul, what shall it 
profit him? Or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul?" Think of the rich fool in the parable 
who confounded the value of his soul with the substance 
of his possessions! Alas for the man who says to his 
soul: "Take thine ease; thou hast much goods laid up 
in store for many years !" 

Many millions seem to think that this is the only life 
they shall ever live! They are often careless of their 
health and culture, and spend their life upon everything 
but its immortal purpose. They expose it, work it, dis- 
sipate it, amuse it, and often kill it. One man, for the 
slightest offense, snuffs out the life of his fellow-man, 
and nations butcher each other in war. Thousands 
drown life in drunkenness or destroy it in debauchery. 
By the tyranny of fashion women blight their beauty, 



Love of Life 263 

ruin their health, shorten their days, and take their lives. 
The invalid, having exhausted all the remedies of med- 
ical skill and healing waters, catches at the straws of 
patent humbugs to keep his life; and, though oft in 
sight of the grave and hopeless of recovery, refuses to 
take the Physician of the soul. How many millions 
have no appreciation of life and health till they are lost, 
and even when lost look not to the hopes of the future ! 
They fight the grave to the last; and with one foot in 
the grave, they refuse to take the proffered help for life 
eternal. Grinding in the mill of business or swirling 
in the mazes of dissipation, they disregard every law of 
self-preservation here below; and when this life has 
been recklessly thrown away, they become oblivious of 
the life eternal. Such is the mockery of life with mil- 
lions. 

Most people have a horror of death. Even down to 
old age, and in spite of afflictions and infirmities, we 
cling to life. Some of the best people shudder at the 
entrance of the dark valley, and only a few go shout- 
ing into the black river. While the stream was shal- 
low to Greatheart, it was deep and overwhelming to 
Christian. The great mass of people dread the scythe 
of the grim Reaper, and many are afflicted with terror 
and pleadings for life. No matter how well prepared 
to go, we still cling to the life we have so long loved. 
It is difficult to close the eye of sense and open the eye 
of faith, in passing from this to the life to come; and 
we are so bound up by the ties of flesh and earthly in- 
terests that it is hard to surrender to the dissolution of 
our earthly loves and relations. 




LOVE OF LIBERTY 




HE picture here sets forth the great idea of 
American liberty, both religious and political, 
in the organic separation between Church and 
and State. The Goddess of Liberty, under 
the eagle that symbolizes liberty and its protection, 
stands upon the American platform between the temple 
of State and the temple of God, with outstretched arm 
and open palm to indicate organic separation between 
the two, and with the Constitution and the Bible on 
respective sides, at her feet. On the temple of State 
is written, "Render to Caesar, Caesar's;" on the Church 
is written, "Render to God, God's." These are the 
words of Christ, who implied liberty for both Church 
and State, but organic separation between the two. 

Soon after the war, when the slaves in the South 
had been freed, I passed an old negro lying sick and des- 
titute by the roadside. I said to him: "How goes it 
now? You seem to be in a pretty bad way. You are 
not having as good a time as with old master." He 
looked at me, smiled, and answered in a moment: "Yes; 
dat's so, but I'se free now." Poor fellow! He had but 
little capacity to understand freedom and its responsi- 
bilities, but, in spite of destitution and misery, he enjoyed 
it to the best of his knowledge and ability. I began to 
reflect upon the natural love of liberty in the feeblest 
and darkest bosom. I pondered over the awful contest 
(264) 



Love of Liberty 267 

that had just closed, in which I had been an active par- 
ticipant. What a bloody price had been paid for the 
preservation of the Union and the freedom of the ne- 
groes! How blind I had been to the decree of modern 
civilization ! How I had hated and fought the theories 
and armies of Lincoln, Sumner, Seward, Grant, and 
Sherman, which had at last prevailed in the abolition of 
slavery ! 

The words of that old negro rang in my ears and 
softened my heart. After all, emancipation was of God 
and the spirit of the age, of that gospel which had set 
the world free. From that day till this, I have never 
had any difficulty about the solution of the problem of 
the Civil War. These reflections softened my prej- 
udices and modified my hatred of the Yankees, who 
till then had seemed to me only a cruel instrument in 
the hands of Providence for scourging the best people 
in the world — a people honest and patriotic in their con- 
victions, however blind to the logic of events. 

Not long ago I met another man, an anti-prohibition- 
ist, full of liquor. I said: "My friend, you are in a 
pretty bad condition; hadn't you better go home and 
get sober before some harm happens to you? I'll go 
with you." He replied about as promptly as the old 
negro, but with an oath, "No, sir ; I'm ag'in' you; I'm for 
personal liberty ;" and on he went in the full enjoyment 
of his freedom. 

I love the liberty of the old negro — the liberty to go 
when and where he pleased, to enjoy even his poverty, 
when not trespassing upon the rights of others; but I 
abhor the liberty of the debauchee, who invokes the law 
to support his insult and injury to the moral sense of 
the community, which plays the leading part in corrupt- 
ing youth, under the sacred plea of personal rights. 



268 The Masterwheel 

There is no such thing as liberty or freedom except as 
guarded by just laws, which protect the civil rights and 
the moral dignity of the people. Liberty is a misnomer 
outside of law and morality. The second table of the 
divine code applies to murder, adultery, theft, perjury, 
and covetousness ; and underlies the rights of life, prop- 
erty, character, and happiness of all men. Any govern- 
ment which does not fully protect these rights falls 
short of securing liberty. The first table of the divine 
code applies to idolatry, the worship of images, profana- 
tion of God's name, the observance of the Sabbath, and 
the obedience and honor of children to their parents. 
These are matters of religious and domestic life, and 
must be left to the individual, so long as he does not 
run counter to public rights, social order, family sanctity, 
nor inflict Sabbath work upon others. Civil govern- 
ment has nothing to do with my religion, my personal 
character, my family, or my Sabbath, except to pro- 
tect their rights. Religious liberty and civil liberty, 
while morally interdependent, are organically independ- 
ent of each other. We render unto God, God's; unto 
Caesar, Caesar's. Christ pays taxes to Caesar, and 
Caesar protects Christ's rights in religion; but there is 
no organic connection whatever between Church and 
State, between God's kingdom and Caesar's kingdom. 
Matters of faith do not belong to civil legislation; and 
civil matters do not belong to Church legislation. This 
is New Testament liberty, which millions have died to 
maintain, and which Christians love to maintain with a 
deathless devotion. 

Liberty depends very greatly upon the surrender of 
rights and privileges which would be harmless in men 
living in isolation. To be justly and happily free, we 
cannot be independent of one another, individually or 



Love of Liberty 269 

collectively. The man who loves liberty best and will 
do most to foster it is willing to make every compromise 
and surrender which will bestow the greatest good upon 
the greatest number. The spirit of liberty is unselfish 
loyalty to just and enlightened government, for the good 
of others as well as of self. Liberty is altruistic, and is 
secured by the contributions of all we can surrender for 
the good of the body politic; and it is this which dis- 
tinguishes our free and enlightened civilization from the 
life of the savage and the hermit. We surrender a part 
of our property in the form of taxation for the support 
of government; and if necessary, we give our lives in 
war for the protection of the government and the preser- 
vation of our common country. We give each other 
half the highway when driving, and we share a common 
fund to keep up the road. I have a right to walk in a 
straight line if I choose, but not if it passes through 
another man's house. We live by all sorts of com- 
promises, and he who most truly loves and best pro- 
motes liberty is the one who makes the greatest sac- 
rifice for the benefit of all. 

The extremes of liberty are despotism on the one 
hand, and anarchy on the other. The glory of modern 
times is to have abolished the former and to have 
avoided the latter. 

The day of the political or religious autocrat is pass- 
ing. Government of the people, by the people, and for 
the people — guarded by constitutions and laws — is the 
ideal of human rule. The autocrat, religious or polit- 
ical, claims the bodies and souls of men, and insists upon 
the surrender of every right and privilege to his rule; 
the anarchist declaims against the surrender of any 
right or privilege to governmental control. We have 
both theories to contend with, even here upon this free 



270 The Masterwheel 

and hallowed soil. If the autocrat is not here in old 
and kingly robe, he masquerades in the garb of the plu- 
tocrat, the monopolist, the political ringster, and even in 
the priestly gown. Centralization or usurpation of this 
government at the hands of any political, financial, or 
religious monopoly only means an imperial autocracy in 
the end; while disintegration and wreck at the hands of 
anarchy, socialism, or nihilism may at some time be the 
result of counterirritation. Many theories and con- 
structions have put a strain upon our Constitution; but 
the growth of monopoly and priestly power in the pol- 
itics and legislation of the country is the most serious 
problem of our future. 

Freedom guarded by just laws, guaranteeing the en- 
joyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is 
the hope of the American people. I am not a pessimist, 
I believe in the perpetuity of the American government ; 
but there are serious problems confronting us, whose 
solution must depend upon the patriotism of the people. 
They dare not sleep who have such a trust in their 
hands ! 

We should be opposed to all centralization except the 
imperialism of equal rights. Voltaire's paradox was 
true in his day: "All men love liberty, and seem bent 
upon destroying her." There is now some truth in 
what he said; but with the mighty growth and hold of 
liberty upon the American heart for more than a hun- 
dred years, it is hardly probable that the paradox can 
have any special application to future American history. 
But who can tell? Let us cherish the advice of Rous- 
seau : "Free people, remember the maxim, 'We may ac- 
quire liberty, but it is never recovered if once lost.' ' 
It is possible to go from liberty to despotism, or to an- 
archy to prevent despotism, but there would be no re- 



Love of Liberty 271 

turn to liberty in either case. In the optimism of my 
highest hope, I believe that the people of this great 
country will never allow the tree of liberty to wither 
and die. 

Religious and political liberty have been twin ideals 
since Christianity began. The American system could 
never have been a possibility but for the New Testa- 
ment. The Constitution of the United States is Chris- 
tian in spirit, if not in letter. It had its germ in the 
gospel; all along through the centuries of superstition 
and despotism its doctrines budded and blossomed, here 
and there, in the utterances of sages wise beyond their 
time, and in the doctrines of the oppressed sects which 
revolted against religious and political tyranny. The 
Paulicians and Waldenses caught the ideal. The Ana- 
baptists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries bold- 
ly proclaimed the doctrine of religious liberty, as Savon- 
arola and Arnold of Brescia had intimated it before 
them; but it was reserved for the Anglo-Saxon to lay 
its foundations alongside of civil liberty. Magna 
Charta was forced upon King John, though anathema- 
tized by Innocent III. Oliver Cromwell and the battle 
of Naseby, though obscured for a time by the accession 
of Charles II., changed the destiny of the world in its 
approaches to religious and political liberty. The same 
spirit crossed to America and set up the Constitution 
of the United States, which separated the Church and 
the State, and left man henceforth to worship God ac- 
cording to the dictates of his own conscience. 



LOVE OF COUNTRY 




HAT a glorious picture does America present 
with the shade of Washington in the back- 
ground — calmly and steadfastly looking up 
to God and to the future of the greatest mem- 
ber of the family of nations ! In front, with the flag 
of her country in one hand and the eagle borne upon 
the other — the symbols of power and freedom — 
scrolled with Prosperity and Security, stands the Gen- 
ius of Liberty, to foster progress and inspire love of 
country in the heart of every American. Between the 
two we behold the signs of the mightiest country and 
civilization in the world — mountains, hills, lakes, and 
plains — dotted with cities, towns, villages, fields — teem- 
ing with every variety of harvests and interspersed with 
homes, churches, factories, railroads, steamers, tel- 
egraphs, and every facility which promotes religion, 
education, commerce, government, civilization — sup- 
ported by every means of defense known to the science 
of war, forts, battleships, armies, and the like. Such 
a picture of our country in miniature cannot fail to ani- 
mate patriotism in every heart that studies it. 

The love of country is a sentiment born and bred in 

almost every human heart, indigenous to the soil of the 

poorest and meanest country. The Esquimaux Indian 

delights in his frigid zone; and above all the luxuries 

(272) 



Love of Country 275 

and refinements of other countries he relishes his blub- 
ber oil, and would not exchange his ice cabin for a 
king's palace. The Icelander sleeps amid eternal snows 
and over a constantly slumbering volcano, but he feels 
that his is the fairest and best land under the sun. The 
Norwegian is proud of his barren summits; and upon 
his rix-dollar he inscribes this motto: "Spirit, loyalty, 
valor, and whatever is honorable, let the world learn 
among the rocks of Norway." "Stand Fast, Crag 
Elachie !" stirred a Scotch regiment to heroic valor in a 
great battle, because it was the name of a beetling rock 
in the fastnesses of their native land. Switzerland is 
a poor country, but nothing is dearer to the Switzer's 
heart than his barren and snow-covered Alps ; and wher- 
ever he may be away from home, nothing awakes his 
heart with love of country more than the note of his 
mountain horn or the melody of one of his native ballads. 
The Ethiopian thinks that God alone made his sandy 
desert, while the angels made the remainder of the 
world. Nothing is more charming and thrilling than 
the stories of Wallace and of Bruce, of Tell and of 
Kossuth, of Kosciusko and of Leonidas, and all the long 
list of heroes who fought against tyranny and power 
for the liberty of many of the little countries that have 
fallen at last into the hands of stronger nations. No 
land so small or so poor but has had its patriots and 
martyrs who have died for the freedom and independ- 
ence of its people, and it is especially to the feeblest and 
most insignificant countries that history ascribes the 
sublimest conflicts for liberty at the hands of the im- 
mortal patriots and warriors. Little Greece, Palestine, 
Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, Hungary, and 
Poland are among the most renowned spots upon the 
globe; and they preserve in their history the most ex- 



276 The Masterwheel 

alted illustrations of the spirit of heroic patriotism. It, 
is exceedingly trite, but it is like quoting Scripture, when 
we cite the words of Walter Scott on this subject : 

Breathes there the man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 
"This is my own, my native land?" 

So of the beautiful words of James Montgomery : 

There is a land, of every land the pride, 
Beloved by heaven o'er all the world beside. 

Where shall that land, that spot of earth, be found? 
Art thou a man, a patriot ? look around ; 
O thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam, 
That land thy country, and that spot thy home ! 

Everything essential to national greatness and secu- 
rity is due to the love of country, an enlightened patriot- 
ism. As Virgil said: 

The noblest motive is the public good. 

The good citizen not only loves his country, but lives and 
dies for it, as he would live and die for his family. 

One of the best evidences of the existence of the pa- 
triotic spirit is national enthusiasm. So long as this 
spirit exists among the people, it is evident that the 
worst elements of society, however strong in politics 
and government, are not in power. The demagogue in- 
sists that the golden rule has no place in politics and 
government; but while the masses enthusiastically ex- 
hibit a national spirit and love their institutions, patriot- 
ism has the sway over all the forces of wealth and pow- 
er. Such enthusiasm is the nursery of genius and states- 
manship, of culture and development of every type; 
and it is at the height of patriotic or national enthu- 
siasm that the greatest men, measures, and institutions 



Love of Country 277 

are born in any country. Never was national enthu- 
siasm greater among the nations of the earth than now ; 
never was patriotism at a loftier height. The secret of 
the fact lies in the great enlightening and progressive 
tendencies of religious and political liberty at the hands 
of modern civilization. 

No greater responsibility lies upon the shoulders of a 
human being than upon those of the patriot. A writer 
says: "After what we owe to God, nothing should be 
more dear to us or more sacred than the love and re- 
spect we owe to our country." No man is a patriot 
who will dodge his taxes, stay away from the ballot 
box, take a bribe for his vote, shrink from the bur- 
dens of office for lack of emolument, or refuse to 
fight in defense of his country. Nor does a man who 
loves his country seek to foster principles and institu- 
tions in conflict with the moral and social interests of 
his government; with unflinching integrity he stands 
by every form of political righteousness, no matter what 
the issue may be. The patriot is always for peace, 
loathes the idea of war, and will do everything in his 
power to avert it; but in the last extremity he will sac- 
rifice himself, if need be, upon the bloodiest horn of the 
altar of war for the best interests of his home and coun- 
try. He is absolutely independent of his party if, in 
the main, he thinks his party is wrong ; and, in all issues 
of moral or political importance, he will vote against 
his party if he is conscious of being right. No patriot 
in this country will seek to foster his denominational in- 
terests by any sort of union between Church and State ; 
and certainly no patriot would vote with any party, in 
any issue, which sought to license or promote the liquor 
traffic or the social evil, which curse society and beg- 
gar disgraced women and children. Shakespeare lays 



278 The Masterwheel 

down the only maxim by which to create good and true 
citizenship when he says: 

Be just and fear not; 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's. 

I am aware of the distinction which makes "practical 
politics" essential to governmental economy in spite of 
party evils; but the policy of doing evil that good may 
come, or of necessary choice between evils, is condemned 
by Holy Writ, and cannot be followed by any Christian 
patriot or good citizen. 

The destiny of a free nation is in the hands of the 
citizens; and the sovereign franchise of the ballot box 
is one of the sublimest obligations laid upon the heart 
of every patriot. Better suffer the temporary wrongs 
of existent tyranny, or the delays of badly executed laws, 
than adopt wrong or lawless methods of doing right 
things. The sovereign citizen has the power of making 
laws and of rectifying bad legislation ; and any effort to 
take the law into your own hands, until every remedy of 
justice has failed, is not patriotism, but madness and 
revenge. The stuffing of a ballot box to carry a good 
measure, or the use of the lyncher's rope to punish 
crime, is destructive of public virtue — a boomerang that, 
by future reaction, will fly back and hurt the hand that 
threw it. Patience and perseverance to a righteous end 
may be slow of process, but the plodding turtle always 
beats the hasty hare in the race for permanent good. 
The shot that barely hits the mark at close range goes 
very far wide of it at long range ; and to do good things 
by wrong methods that may not hurt to-day may damn 
and ruin a future generation. It is said that all things 
are fair in love and war, and so it seems in politics ; but 



Love of Country 279 

a lie is a lie and a wrong is a wrong, whatever may be 
the excuse, and they never escape retribution somewhere 
and somehow. The true patriot can no more afford to 
lie or do wrong for a good purpose than a true saint; 
and what the true saint is to God, the true patriot is to 
his country. Strategy and diplomacy may be necessary 
in order to defeat the wiles of the enemy ; but any policy 
which involves falsehood, or wrong measures, to accom- 
plish necessary ends is a vice and a crime that will grow 
upon a nation, as upon a man, and finally uproot virtue 
and liberty. 

In the administration of justice, the execution of the 
law, the judge that sits upon the bench and wears his 
ermine well is next to the minister in the pulpit who so 
wears his robes; and the lawyer at the bar and the 
juror in his box occupy quite as responsible and honor- 
able places. They hold in their hands the safety of 
every human life, the right of property and liberty in- 
volved in litigation or violence to law; and to judge 
partially, or to plead falsely, or to give a wrong verdict, 
is the highest crime against society and good govern- 
ment. If patriotism has on hand a magnificent task in 
cleaning out the Augean stables of dirty politics and 
legislation, it has an equal task in sweeping the floor of 
our courthouses and magistrates' offices. The judge 
that is in the hands of politics, or in the grip of monop- 
oly, is a menace to the liberties of his countrymen and a 
disgrace to civilization. A shyster lawyer or a pro- 
fessional juror should hang, though none, it seems, 
but a negro or a low white man, moneyless and 
friendless, ever hangs. The penitentiary is too 
good a place for the responsible agents of the world, 
who have the execution of the just laws in their 
hands only to maladminister and defeat them. One of 



280 The Masterwheel 

the sublimest maxims of the patriot is the supremacy 
of just laws and the abolition of bad ones, and to choose 
or license agents for their execution is one of the su- 
preme responsibilities of the citizen. 

So of every professon and institution set up and fos- 
tered for the public good. Kossuth said: "My idea is 
that there are duties toward our native land common 
to every citizen, and even public institutions and educa- 
tion must have such direction as to enable every citizen 
to fulfill his duty toward his fatherland." Patriotism 
enters into every relation we sustain to society which 
affects the public good. Our public schools and char- 
ities are magnificent forms of patriotism extending light 
to ignorance, virtue to vice, and help to the needy. The 
true patriot is an honest business man, the developer of 
a pure home, an ornament to society and his profession, 
ever watchful of the good order and decency of the 
community in which he lives. The patriot begins in the 
noble boy and the pure girl, in that unselfish education 
which teaches the surrender of every private right es- 
sential to social and public weal. There is not a point 
in private or public life, in individual or social relation- 
ship, which patriotism does not touch, and no man is 
fit to live in society, or in his native country, who feels no 
interest in the common welfare of mankind, and who 
never does or says anything in its favor. 

Many who would die for their country never live for 
it. Often we commend the brave soldier who sheds his 
blood or gives his life for his native land; and yet he 
may have been merely a soldier of fortune or have gone 
into the ranks for the novelty or the money in it, of by 
compulsion. I have seen the soldier who cursed the 
government for which he fought, or the fortune that had 
drawn him upon the battlefield, or who was absolutely 



Love of Country 281 

indifferent to his life or country in peace or war. This 
is not to say that the mass of any country's soldiers are 
not patriotic and willing to fight and die for their gov- 
ernment; but the greatest patriot is he who lives and 
labors for the blessings of peace at home, and makes the 
best soldier when it comes to war. He who lives for 
his country will find it easy to die for it. There are 
thousands, however, who enjoy the most their country 
and government can bestow upon them, and yet are not 
patriots. Wealth and honor are not always patriotic. 
Those who own most often pay the least taxation in 
proportion to their property value; they are frequently 
too busy to go to the polls to vote, and would be the last 
to take up arms in defense of their country. The yeo- 
manry who own the least of their country fight its bat- 
tles; and often the rich man takes it hard to have to 
pay for the fight. There are some, therefore, who nei- 
ther live nor die for their country. The true patriot 
lives, and would die, for his native land. With all her 
faults he loves her still ; and in peace or war, in prosper- 
ity or adversity, he never forgets the flag that waved 
above the cradle of his childhood, beneath the protection 
of whose folds his youth and manhood were nourished. 



LOVE OF WAR 




HHIS chapter's illustration depicts the gran- 
deur and horror of war. On each side we 
discover the serried ranks of opposing armies, 
belching the roar and thunder of battle at 
each other from musket and cannon. Amid clouds of 
smoke, shot and shell rain upon the contending columns. 
Though animated by a cavalry charge yet the scene is 
hideous with the carnage of the dead and wounded, who 
lie piled upon the gory field over which the lines have 
charged and recharged in the deadly strife for victory. 
On the left of the awful scene, wreathed in mist, mounted 
upon his old gray horse, sword in hand, we behold the 
spirit of Napoleon, the genius of war, presiding over 
the deadly conflict. 

The native element of man seems to be war. The 
firstborn struck the first blow, and since the blood of 
Abel cried up to God the earth has been drinking the 
blood of war and sending up a wail of woe. War was 
the first fruit of sin after the loss of Eden, and that 
blood-red growth has hung upon the tree of all civiliza- 
tion since. Times of peace, until the present period, 
have only been seasons of preparation for war ; and even 
now the preparation continues in view of its possibilities. 
The world has seldom, if ever, seen the gates of Janus 

shut; and if a nation now and then has seen them shut, 
(282) 



Love of War 285 

it has only been for a short period of time. War ! war ! 
war ! has been the business of mankind in all generations ; 
and though now the arts of peace have so prevailed, and 
international compromise has become so deeply rooted, 
we cannot tell when a war will break out within a nation, 
or between nations, or when the world itself shall be 
engulfed in general strife. We have not yet reached 
the conditions of permanent peace within any nation, or 
between the nations. Sin, selfishness, ambition, conflict- 
ing interests, the balance of power, the jealousy of do- 
minion, the thirst for conquest and territory, the pride 
of empire — all these and more make war possible we 
know not when, nor to what extent when once begun. 

It is a great question among some people as to whether 
there is any justification of war, or as to whether there 
is any honor, greatness, or righteousness involved in 
war. There have been not a few who held to the doc- 
trine of nonresistance and peace at any price upon the 
principles of Christ's teaching and practice; but while 
this doctrine applies to the individual Christian under 
helpless persecution and wrong, it is doubtful if Jesus 
Christ meant that, under no circumstances, should we 
defend ourselves from personal injury, or adjudicate our 
differences at the hands of the powers that be. Christ 
did tell Peter to put up his sword, upon the ground that 
they who take the sword shall perish by the sword ; but 
it is not implied that we should not use the sword of 
defense. He says again, "Render unto Caesar the 
things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which 
are God's;" but while this and other doctrines teach us 
that God's kingdom is neither to be propagated by sword 
nor developed by conquests, they tell us to "obey the 
powers that be" in every form of allegiance and defense 
essential to civil government. No war is justifiable or 



286 The Masterwheel 

honorable begun or carried on for aggression, oppres- 
sion, or conquest; but in defense of right, or for the 
suppression of wrong, when there is no other remedy, 
war is as necessary to a nation as the courthouse, the 
gibbet, or the penitentiary is to a community. 

Under a legal dispensation, God himself carried on the 
fiercest of wars, through his chosen people, against his 
enemies. The first was waged by Abraham, that majes- 
tic patriarch who slaughtered and routed the Damascus 
kings who captured Lot; and Moses and Joshua and 
Samson and Gideon and Jonathan and Saul and David 
are lauded and honored by Holy Writ as God's men of 
war who scattered their enemies and finally established 
the kingdom of Israel. Under the law and its con- 
demnation, a sinful world was as rebels against God; 
and when truth and revelation could not enlighten and 
restore them to love and allegiance God had the right to 
use the sword to punish and destroy them in the interests 
of his kingdom of peace and righteousness. Many, if 
not all, of the wars carried on by men are under the per- 
mission and direction of God, who overrules the evil for 
good and develops the great ends of progress, civiliza- 
tion, and religion. He called Cyrus, who was to batter 
down the walls of Babylon, his "servant;" and such men 
as Alexander, Julius Caesar, Alaric, Charlemagne, 
Frederick the Great, and Napoleon were but instruments 
in God's hands for revolutionizing and changing civi- 
lizations in view of the great movements of his kingdom 
in the earth. The natural and sinful conditions of so- 
ciety are such that the gravity of evil is continually 
downward. The convulsions of war, however horrible 
and desolating for the time, are as essential to social 
purity and progress as the storm and the cyclone are to 
atmospheric equilibrium, health, and vegetation. 



Love of War 287 

With the sword and the cannon — with conquest and 
aggression, sometimes cruel and unjust — the light of 
learning and religion have gone side by side. Alexan- 
der paved the way for the spread of Greek literature 
and art over the Oriental world; and so Caesar carried 
Roman enterprise and civilization among the Gauls, 
Germans, and Britons. The invasion of the northern 
hordes brought new blood and life into the decaying civ- 
ilization of the Roman people. God kept Germany on 
ice for centuries in order to melt her frigid purity into 
the warmer and more enervate veins of the southern 
nations of Europe. The Thirty Years' War settled the 
supremacy of Protestant civilization among the German 
States ; and the wars of Napoleon, following the French 
Revolution and the Reign of Terror, shook the founda- 
tions of the old effete despotisms and superstitions of 
Europe and spread, in spite of his own absolutism, the 
republican principles which originated in France, and 
which he at first professed. The battle of Waterloo 
closed his career in a contest which left Protestant prin- 
ciples and civil liberty triumphant over the menace of 
his ambition and absolutism. The war between England 
and the American colonies hastened and fixed forever the 
status of political and religious freedom, and the civil 
war between the Southern and the Northern States for- 
ever settled the slavery question, The conquest of Brit- 
ish and American arms in the multiplication of British 
territories and American States has rapidly opened up 
the heathen world to the gospel and to civilization ; and 
so, in the providence of God, war and civilization have 
marched side by side through the history of the world 
to the present time. 

War, in itself, or for the sake of war, is a horrible 
crime, and none should love it; but, as a means to an 



288 The Masterwheel 

end, it is a necessary evil, in the present state of society. 
Its purpose as an instrument in the hands of divine prov- 
idence is not yet subserved. Despotism and supersti- 
tion are not yet dead. The way to the civilization and 
the evangelization of the world is not yet fully opened. 
Most of the absolutisms of the world have given way to 
some degree of religious and political liberty, but the 
work is not complete. France, Italy, Spain, and Austria 
have made some progress ; but Turkey, Russia, and some 
other countries, Christian, Mohammedan, and heathen, 
must yet relax the chains of slavery and darkness over 
the minds and bodies of men; and not until the last 
shackle is loosed will God permit the angel of peace to 
spread his wings over all the nations of the earth. But 
for the mighty arms of Great Britain and America, to- 
day, there's many a spot of earth where the Bible and 
the missionary could not go; and until the last wall is 
broken down, the sword will not cease to flash nor the 
cannon cease to thunder. Christ is to break every evil 
force and power "with a rod of iron/' before he comes 
again, and before he sits upon the throne of universal 
peace, liberty, and salvation in this old world. 

Thank God ! the time is coming as predicted when war 
shall be no more, when the lamb and the lion shall lie 
down together, when our swords and spears shall be- 
come plowshares and pruning hooks. The necessity for 
war has largely diminished already. The growth of 
Christian civilization has wonderfully smoothed down 
his wrinkled front, and brought on the era of a general, 
if not universal, peace. We may not be far from the 
end when the cannon shall be heard no more except in 
the salvos of universal triumph over darkness and 
strife; and the consummation devoutly to be wished 
may be the result of twentieth-century progress. 



Love of War 289 

The spirit of war is not inconsistent with a heroic or 
even a Christian character or manhood. The soldier 
may be absolutely free from the thirst for blood, from 
delight in carnage, and yet be brave and intrepid in the 
heat of battle. Animated by a sense of justice and pa- 
triotism in a great cause, he may march to the cannon's 
mouth and die joyously, as thousands have, for his 
country, his home, and fireside. Fighting especially for 
human liberty and rights, he may make havoc of tyrants, 
or be hewed to pieces with a conscience clear and a pur- 
pose high, as in any other act of life; and thousands of 
the noblest and grandest of men have lived and died the 
life of the soldier. In a good cause war may be glorious ; 
and as in any other calling of life, the heroic spirit may 
win honor and renown in the profession of arms. Such 
men as David and Joshua and Gustavus Adolphus and 
Cromwell and Wellington and Washington and Lee and 
Stonewall Jackson and Hancock were men of the highest 
distinction for manhood and religion. Stonewall Jack- 
son prayed as earnestly for success in battle, believing in 
the righteousness of his cause, as the minister in the 
pulpit for the salvation of souls; and Robert E. Lee 
stood reverently with uncovered head, in the midst of 
the camp revival, as he would in the hour of worship in 
his church at home. The mightiest and grandest sol- 
diers have been Christian patriots battling in the cause 
of freedom or in the suppression of national evils. Such 
men as Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon seemed to love 
war and conquest for its own sake. They were ani- 
mated by vaulting ambitions ; and they seemed never to 
be satisfied except in the saddle at the head of the army. 
So of thousands of others whose butcheries of the human 
family were only a sacrificial offering upon the altar of 
their only god — ambition. 



290 The Masterwheel 

One of the objections to war is the cruel sacrifice of 
human life, the untold sufferings of a land overrun by 
armies, of homes made desolate, and the enormous sac- 
rifice of money and men in the prosecution of wars. It 
all looks horrible and awful; and yet, after all, it is in 
the wake of war's fearful convulsions that peace, prog- 
ress, and prosperity follow as never before. There is not 
a great nation that has not often been drenched in blood, 
that has not worn the cypress wreath of sorrow after 
hundreds of wars; and still ten thousand monuments 
stand in testimony of the great and heroic dead, an in- 
spiration to manhood and valor, and as evidence of na- 
tional honor and progress above the ruin and desolation 
of the battlefield. Men have but one time to die, and, 
if prepared, death on the battlefield is as sweet as on the 
downy pillow at their fireside. The moral decay of 
luxurious and licentious peace is often worse than the 
demoralization of war; and the saloon and the brothel 
and other institutions of evil (either protected, tolerated, 
or winked at by law) annually destroy more people and 
bring more misery than war, pestilence, and famine put 
together. Suffering is the ordeal through which all 
blessing and development come, and perpetual peace and 
true prosperity never long run together. It takes the 
fire of war and calamity to purge the dross out of na- 
tional and social life, and to restore equilibrium to the 
stagnant and deadly atmosphere of political corruption 
and decay. 

In a just and honest conflict between nations, or in 
internecine strife, the Christian soldier can love his en- 
emies as well as the principles upon which he wages war, 
the necessity for which he may abhor. We need not 
hate the criminal we hang for murder, nor the enemy 
we kill in war; and the patriot who fights and kills or 



Love of War 291 

dies, upon principle, and can love his enemies, is the 
grandest and mightiest soldier that ever fought a battle. 
I knew a Confederate captain of artillery who always 
prayed with every shot from his guns for every soul that 
might be killed by his fire; and I have sometimes seen, 
when both armies were resting and picket-firing had 
ceased, Confederate and Federal soldiers meet in friend- 
ly intercourse. Since the gigantic struggle has ceased, 
most generous magnanimity has been displayed by the 
old soldiers who have met and shaken hands upon many 
occasions and upon some of the old battlefields where 
they engaged in deadly strife; and but for the "bloody' 
shirt" politicians, fraternity between the two sections 
had long ago been perfected. War makes manhood — 
valorous, chivalrous, noble, and generous ; and while the 
grandeur of our awful strife rose high above all the 
splendor known to former military history and achieve- 
ment, the grandest sights in the realm of the morally 
sublime were to see the Blue and the Gray shake hands 
at the close of the struggle, to see their kindness to each 
other when wounded on the battlefield, to see them meet 
and joke and trade when the firing had ceased between 
the lines. One touch of nature often made both sides 
akin and rebuked conflict. 

A nation or a people, in the present state of human 
nature, and under the present conditions of national re- 
lationship, is not safe without the heroic or chivalrous 
spirit. When the nations are regenerated and full of 
the spirit of Christ, there will be no need for war, punish- 
ment, or affliction. When the Devil is cast out and goes 
into the "bottomless pit," then he can neither make war 
nor the necessity of being overcome by war. 



LOVE OF TRUTH 




'RUTH, in the accompanying illustration, is 
pictured a maiden who holds in her right 
hand the cross which radiates with glory 
and splendor the Truth as impersonated and 
crucified in Christ. He was Rex, the King of Glory, 
and Lex, the Fulfillment of Law. In the left hand 
of the maiden is the Sword of the Spirit — the Word of 
God, or the truth as it is written — which pierces the 
serpent of Sin and Error. On her right is a polished 
cube which faces foursquare in every position, and 
which represents Reason supported by Law and ground- 
ed in logical Simplicity. This is truth in its bare and 
square exactitude of principle and authority as it appears 
to every mind. On her left is a polished globe, symbol- 
izing Inspiration, based upon the Gospel and grounded in 
Beauty. This illustrates Truth in the aesthetic, ethical, 
and spiritual realm. 

Truth is the great fundamental attribute of God. 
Love is the sum of all his attributes ; but truth and love 
are inseparable. The almighty, the all-wise, the every- 
where God, clothed with justice, goodness, and mercy, 
and filled with infinite love, stands upon truth as the> 
great foundation of Deity itself, and the foundation of 
all his mighty work in creation, providence, and grace. 
God is no bigger, greater, or mightier than truth. He 

(292) 




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Love of Truth, 



Love of Truth 295 

is Truth ; and all variation from truth is variation from 
God, the violation of his very being which is founded 
upon truth. The glory of God is that he cannot lie, 
nor err, nor make a mistake. Throughout his whole 
vast creation, through all the dispensation of his in- 
finite providence, and in all his mighty and complicated 
scheme of redemption and dealing with his creatures 
he has never varied one jot or tittle from the truth. In 
the vast and multiplied machinery of the universe there 
may be seen conflict of forces and contests between ele- 
ments, but these appear only to the narrow view and 
with a wider vision would be shown as part of that in- 
finite perfection which, through revolutions and changes, 
is working out the purposeful ends of God. 

How charming and beautiful is the truthful charac- 
ter ! The man whom everybody believes and can trust 
may be, in the eyes of some, very much out of date, 
a sort of fossilized impersonation of virtue; but he is 
the admiration of heaven, the best friend of earth, and 
of incomparable value to himself. Having this pearl 
of greatest price, he is apt to be in possession of all oth- 
ers ; and, possessed of the joy of clean lips and a pure con- 
science, he is the only true, brave, fearless, and invulner- 
ably fortified man in the world. He may be too poor 
to have many friends, he may be despised for his im- 
politic honesty, he may be outcast and persecuted, as 
Jesus was, for his vindication of truth against error 
and falsehood; but his head is above the lightnings of 
human wrath, and his heart is beyond the touch of hu- 
man fear or corruption. His life and character are un- 
obscured by clouds, and his power and influence are in- 
superable to opposition and obloquy. He is of unmeas- 
ured worth to this world ; and though he cannot be loved 
and honored by all men, yet there are some among us 



296 The Masterwheel 

who wholly or partially love his integrity, vindicate his 
honor, and transmit his worth to an admiring posterity. 

The only perfect character in human form that ever 
lived or died was Jesus Christ, the God-man without a 
model, and without a type except in the lives and char- 
acters who have followed him. Christ became the only 
concrete manifestation of divine truth; and hence, by 
his life, death, and resurrection, he could claim what 
he declared: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." 
He was the truth of God incarnate, crucified, and risen ; 
and it had already been declared by the greatest human 
philosopher, as well as predicted by divine prophecy, 
that the incarnation of truth must die when it appeared 
upon earth in order to perfect the world's life. The 
greatest illustration of truth and its necessity to a lost 
world was the immolation of God's Son, who fulfilled 
the fiat of infinite justice and answered the demand of 
infinite love; and when the tragedy of Golgotha was 
enacted, the universe recognized the sacrifice of deified 
truth when the earth quaked, the sheeted dead arose 
from their tombs, the sun turned black, and the af- 
frighted stars fled from their places. 

At the foot of the cross the world changed front, and 
the dead nations turned their faces toward God and 
the future. The Truth broke the bars of death, arose 
from the horrors of hell, ascended to heaven, and 
wields the scepter of all power in behalf of racial re- 
demption. Light and liberty lifted their torches above 
the world's dark night of superstition and despotism ; and 
the march of the centuries with solemn pace have 
reached, at last, the glory of the twentieth centennial in 
the history of triumphant Truth. Behold the trophies 
won from her conflicts with all the dark and deadly 
forces of error and evil ! It has been the march of 



Love of Truth 297 

Jesus Christ, "the way, the truth, and the life," the secret 
of prophecy and history. That old "liar," the Devil, with 
the beast and the false prophet, is gradually giving way 
to the gigantic strides of a true religion and civilization ; 
and when the impersonation of imperial and eternal 
Truth shall come again in the clouds of glory, attended 
by the shining hosts of the seraphim and the redeemed, 
earth shall again become an Eden. 

As to the ethical value of truth there are none so base 
as to have a doubt, whatever be the practice of life. 
Truth is like the sun, whose rays shoot in straight lines 
in every direction ; and though there be spots on the sun, 
there are none upon the perfect and luminous orb of 
truth. "Truth," says Milton, "is as impossible to be 
soiled by any outward touch as the sunbeam." As beau- 
ty needs no paint, so truth needs no color; and though 
different truths may blend like the different colored rays 
to make a perfect light, yet, apart from the rainbow or 
prism, perfect light is always the same; and, likewise, 
truth unrefracted or viewed through the glass of perfect 
knowledge is the same to every beholder. The lover 
of truth never colors it to suit himself. It may not 
be possible for all men to see the truth alike, but the fault 
is not in the truth but in men. In heaven, of course, 
we shall see face to face, and know as we are known; 
but even here, where we see through a glass darkly, we 
are commanded, at least in religion, to have the same 
mind and speak the same things. There is not a line 
in God's Word which teaches that truth is left as an 
uncertain factor to make out of it opinions and results 
according to our bias, preference, or predilection ; but we 
are to strive for unity in the truth as in the Spirit of 
Christ. 

Voltaire told the truth when he said : "He who seeks 



298 The Masterwheel 

the truth should be of no country/' "There are few 
persons," said another, "to whom truth is not a sort 
of insult;'' and it has been said again, "All truth con- 
tains an echo of sadness." It often means the forsak- 
ing of father, mother, home, friends, and country ; and no 
man can ever expect to know and obey the truth who is 
not willing to sacrifice his associations upon the altar of 
eternal verities. There are millions who hold to some 
truths to the exclusion of others, or who are only half- 
truth followers, or who maintain perverted truths with 
perfect honesty and zeal; but such acceptance of truth 
has ever split the world into factions, strifes, and rival- 
ries — into a thousand conflicting schools — and the rea- 
son must be found in the fact, not that truth is suscepti- 
ble in itself of division, but that men follow their educa- 
tion or peculiarities, their selfishness and interests, their 
prejudices and preferences. Somebody has to be right 
and the rest wrong, or else all are wrong in every con- 
flict over truth; and while it is not to be denied that 
truth, more or less pure, comes out triumphant from 
every conflict, yet it is a sad fact that truth, in order to 
be understood, loved, and obeyed, has often had to come 
through such an ordeal. 

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again : 
The eternal years of God are hers ; 

Put Error, wounded, writhes with pain, 
And dies among his worshipers. 

One glory of truth is that it is always and everywhere 
consistent with itself and its relations. There may be 
many forms of truth, but truths never differ in the prin- 
ciple of verity. Lies have no consistency with them-, 
selves or their surroundings, unless it be in hell, which 
is the center and circumference of the Devil's deception. 
Up to a certain point, lies may be consistent with them- 



Love of Truth 299 

selves, but relationsbip to facts and truths invariably 
destroys the system of falsehood; and it has been im- 
possible for even the Devil long to cover up his tracks. 
The truths of religion, science, philosophy, are never 
in conflict, however they may seem to certain little minds. 
Truth alone shall triumph in the end through all the con- 
vulsions and changes wrought by conflict with the world, 
the flesh, and the Devil; and even out of the grave itself 
shall be snatched the victory of life, and the cruel scepter 
of sin and falsehood shall be broken over the head of 
the father of lies. The time is coming when we shall 
exclaim with the poet : 

See Truth, Love, and Mercy in triumph descending, 
And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom ; 

On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, 
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb. 

The great difficulty of Pontius Pilate was that when 
he saw the Truth standing before him he turned upon 
his heel and asked the evasive question, "What is truth ?" 
making no effort to seek the solution of his own prob- 
lem. The truth is everywhere and easy to be discov- 
ered, if we only desire to know it or make an effort to 
identify it when we see it. It has been well said that 
"the greatest truths are commonly the simplest." It is 
so in the case of Christ, the imperial impersonation of all 
truth, and yet truth in no form has ever been so misun- 
derstood or perverted. The Master was such a daz- 
zling rebuke to falsehood and hypocrisy, to selfishness 
and ambition, to enmity and rivalry, to lust and avarice, 
to everything base and inhuman, that it is no wonder 
Pilate did not recognize him, or if he did, turned away 
from him when presented as the incarnation of truth. 
It is Pilate's puzzle, innate in every human heart, that 
has barred the world from pausing to examine and ac- 



300 . The Masterwheel 

cept the truth when it stands before us. We await the 
day when our eyes shall be scaleless. 

Even the great and good, as we call them, those who 
profess to believe and accept, have mutilated and de- 
formed verities in a thousand shapes to suit the per- 
verted wants of selfish and popular opinion, in order to 
get to heaven and to escape hell as much as possible in 
their own way. 

Never was a doctrine so distorted as that of the blood- 
atonement of the Cross, the central and vital doctrine of 
Christianity, and yet the truth never was written plainer 
than that Christ made a judicial and vicarious offering 
of himself for the sin of the world which he came to 
take away. Every fad and fancy in religion must now 
take on the name of Christ, in order to have the color 
of truth, and with their half-truth daggers they all are 
stabbing the divinity, atonement, and resurrection and 
so also of salvation by grace and justification by faith, 
the fundamental truths of the gospel. Rationalism, 
occultism, "sciencism," pantheism, and other ''isms'' are 
all putting on the livery of Christ in which to serve the 
Devil. Surely one of the most startling revelations of 
the Judgment Day will not be so much the condemna- 
tion of the unbelieving dead, as the damnation of the 
false Christianity that mutilated and perverted the truth 
of God's Son. 

Thousands of people who appear to want the truth, 
and who profess it, seem always to be driving just as 
close as possible to the verge of Error's precipice. The 
pride of liberalism is the shoal upon which so many 
fair vessels in religion are wrecked, and, worse than all, 
the unconscious wish is the father to the thought of all 
false Christianity in the world. Horatius Bonar was. 
right when he said : 



Love of Truth 301 

All truth is calm, 

Refuge and rock or tower; 
The more of truth the more of calm, 

Its calmness is its power. 

Truth is not strife, 

Nor is it to strife allied ; 
It is the error that is bred 

Of storm, by rage and pride. 

But the safe and solid Christians who are anchored 
firmly to their faith and are not sailing around in a sea 
of doubt hunting for something new need have no fear. 
The various cults and "isms" and the new-fangled 'ol- 
ogies and 'osophies that have sprung up in recent years 
are but the lures and false lights Satan puts out to decoy 
men from Christ the Truth. The men and women who 
teach such things are but the Devil's lighthouse tenders. 
O that it were given to all men to read aright the sig- 
nals that come from God's lighthouses, the churches, 
emanations indeed of the Great White Christ that died 
on Calvary to put the world and its people straight. 



LOVE OF BEAUTY 




ERE is beauty, in the form of woman — the 
most exquisitely beautiful thing on earth — 
and Cupid, the god of love, putting the crown 
upon her head. Before her are bowed the 
dignitaries of earth — warriors, statesmen, philosophers, 
poets, artists, scholars, kings, and princes — ordinary 
men and women and children, all of whom bend at Beau- 
ty's feet with submissive obeisance, each bearing a bunch 
of flowers. Flowers, the next most beautiful thing in 
nature, are the only appropriate tribute to woman, the 
impersonation of beauty. Even the Devil, crouched be- 
side her throne — the tempter of beauty and ever its only 
ruin — offers his bouquet. Over the distinguished audi- 
ence who bow before her she waves the winged wand 
of her wondrous power; for of all the forces of earth, 
that of beauty is the most irresistible — the mightiest 
power for good or ill in all the world. 

What is beauty ? and what is it to be beautiful ? Pri- 
marily it is that which pleases the eye or the ear, that 
quality in an object which excites pleasurable emotions 
through the senses; but the word applies also to that 
quality in an object or thought which awakens admira- 
tion or approval. Hence there may be intellectual beau- 
ty, moral beauty, the beauty of holiness, truth, character, 
life, utility, and the like. "Multitude in unity" was the 
old Roman definition of beauty; and hence any assem- 

(3° 2 ) 



Love of Beauty 305 

blage of graces or qualities in a person or an object 
which satisfies the aesthetic taste or faculty constitutes 
beauty. A sense of beauty is always followed by affec- 
tion, which implies enthusiasm and feeling; and hence 
every one who has a sense of beauty is a lover of the 
beautiful. 

The taste or faculty for the beautiful varies largely 
in different persons as to degree ; but it is innate and uni- 
versal, and of the same nature, if not perverted, in every 
individual. There is scarcely a human being that would 
not say the rose is beautiful and the toad is ugly; and 
yet there are some in whom the aesthetic faculty is so 
feebly developed that they would not make much dis- 
tinction as to beauty between a toad and a flower. The 
aesthetic taste, like all other faculties, is susceptible of a 
very high culture. Some people would rather hear 
"Old Dan Tucker" in music than any of the master- 
pieces of Mozart, Haydn, or Mendelssohn; but they 
have music in their souls, and the difference lies in cul- 
ture. The gifted and cultured taste for the beautiful 
sees beauty everywhere and in everything, to the mi- 
nutest detail of lineament and conformation, while the 
ordinary and the unskilled sense beholds the beautiful 
and the grand only in general outline or in the gross; 
but as in the case of music, the difference lies in develop- 
ment. There is nothing like looking for the beautiful, 
and studying to see it in all its force upon the intellect 
and the sensibilities. The world would be much bright- 
er and men much happier if they loved and studied the 
beautiful more. 

One of the objects of beauty is to brighten and glad- 
den the soul and the world we live in. "A thing of 
beauty is a joy forever." God ordained the beautiful, 
and so the ugly in contrast, in order to make beauty ap- 
20 



306 The Masterwheel 

preciable and powerful, for the happiness and good of 
his creatures; and if beauty is rarer than the uncomely 
or the ugly, like every other precious thing, it was in- 
tended to be sought and studied for its worth and its 
blessing. 

In the sphere of human excellence "beauty is as beau- 
ty does ;" and as a rule physical beauty has no particular 
reputation for intellectual or moral excellence. There 
is a vanity in personal beauty that generally puts a dead 
fly into the precious ointment of life and character. 
"Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain;" and the diffi- 
culty with pretty people is that they forget to care for 
the internal beauty of the soul by overattention to their 
external graces. A beautiful woman and a handsome 
man are in more danger than any other class of people 
of being victimized by temptation; for personal beauty 
that becomes vain of its attractions is always the shin- 
ing mark for the voluptuous tempter. Nearly all the 
victims of ruin have been beautiful persons, once infatu- 
ated with their own charms, and the easy prey of the 
charmer whose touch is leprosy and who dazzles with 
the mesmeric eye of the basilisk. There is nothing upon 
which lechery feeds more gloatingly than the vanity of 
beauty, and in many instances beauty has proved to be 
the greatest misfortune to its possessors. Juvenal said, 
"Rare is the union of beauty and virtue;" and Bacon 
said nearly the same thing, "It is seldom the case that 
beautiful persons are otherwise of great virtue." Ovid 
called beauty "a frail good;" and Shakespeare says: 

Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. 

I wish to emphasize the fact that in the beautiful 
"beauty is as beauty does." The greatest travesty upon 
life is the hideousness of ill behavior and vice in the 



Love of Beauty 307 

beautiful ; and nothing is more shocking than the down- 
fall of beauty. To look upon the wreck of a beautiful 
man or woman, still beautiful in ruin, is to look upon a 
broken Corinthian column, or a once splendid temple, 
prone in the dust and yielding to the corroding tooth 
of time. Saddest of all is that "beauty, blemished once, 
forever's lost." 

I know nothing so charming, nothing so lovely as 
consecrated personal beauty, adorned with the cultured 
mind. A beautiful wife, mother, daughter, sister — ed- 
ucated, refined, and pure about the fascinating circle of 
the fireside; an ornament in society and a jewel in re- 
ligion ; bright, happy, useful, prudent, modest, and wise 
— what a power for good by her very charm of beauty ! 

Fair tresses man's imperial race ensnare, 
And beauty draws us with a single hair. 

When the beauty of person is added to the beauty of 
mind and heart, it becomes an irresistible power for 
good. 

Orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth. 

If beauty has power to do evil, why not to do good? 
If Absalom stole the hearts of people for evil by his 
personal charms, why did not Moses, whose beauty was 
one of his marked attractions, thereby add to his power 
to lead God's people ? I have always imagined that the 
affectionate John was a man of personal beauty; and it 
seems that his greatest power lay in the added charm of 
love by which he has mastered the world and left the 
indelible impress of his beauty upon the minds of men. 
Flowers are the most beautiful things in the world, but 
the rarest flower is that which gives with its beauty the 
sweetest perfume. 

But God has not seen fit, as a rule, to put the jewel 



308 The Masterwheel 

of excellence in the casket of beauty, which is too sel- 
dom valuable or useful. Oftenest he seems to have en- 
dowed most lavishly the homely and the ugly. The 
most beautiful of birds and animals are not of greatest 
service to mankind. The milch cow, the yoke ox, the 
draught horse, the fine trotter, the animals and fowls 
for food, are not often pretty. The men and women 
who have possessed the greatest talents and the least 
vanity have often been of the greatest benefit to the 
world. Classic grandeur sometimes mingles with 
rugged strength in the faces of those who move might- 
ily and righteously among men. Beauty and strength 
united in the personal features of Moses, and the com- 
bination did not impair his force of character. Paul, 
who was as mighty as Moses, had, perhaps, nothing 
of personal beauty to charm or affect. Had Richard 
III. been a saint instead of a devil, that same force of 
character and strength of genius for evil would have 
turned to grand account, instead of disaster. Ugliness 
or physical deformity only adds to power, when the 
beauty and grandeur of soul and life cover the external 
defect; and often life, character, and genius are so 
beautiful, grand, and great as to make us forget phys- 
ical deformity. Little, bedwarfed, swarthy Alexander 
Stephens, of Georgia, though weird in appearance to 
the stranger, seemed godlike to his hearers. There is 
always one 'fascinating feature in the face of genius, 
greatness, or goodness, and that is the eye — the index 
of the soul; and with the dazzling and magnetic eye, 
deformity or ugliness always covers its defects with the 
halo of that internal light which shines from a beautiful ' 
life and a great heart. Some of the most fascinating 
people in the world are among the ugly and the de- 
formed ; and some of the most hideous people, Mokanna- 



Love of Beauty 309 

like, are both ugly and bad. The homely Queen Eliza- 
beth fascinated and wielded a kingdom by the splendor 
of her genius and force of character; while Mary, of 
Scotland, was driven to her fate by her weakness and 
impurity, beauty merely heightening her depravity. 

The lover of the beautiful should look more to the in- 
trinsic than to the extrinsic value of beauty. A writer 
says: "He who cannot see the beautiful side is a bad 
painter, a bad friend, a bad lover; he cannot lift 
his mind and heart so high as goodness." External 
beauty is a pleasant but transient thing, and the lover not 
infrequently tires of it; but the internal beauty of even 
ugly things never palls upon the taste. Goodness, great- 
ness, nobility, and docility are beautiful, even if not 
pretty; how beautiful is a childlike man or woman, lov- 
ing yet faithful and courageous, gentle yet mighty, low- 
ly yet uplifting, always useful, helpful, doing good! 
This is a portrait of beauty that no artist can paint, 
except upon the canvas of the mind; and yet it is the 
most beautiful ever drawn by imagination or kept in 
the memory. It is the imitation of Christ, the lowliest, 
loftiest, and mightiest subject of beauty and grandeur in 
life and character. What a model of beauty and glory 
is Jesus Christ, and how exquisite the copy in a Chris- 
tian life ! The eloquent proclamation of the gospel, the 
gorgeous architecture of the church, the splendid finery 
of the pew, the lofty peal of organ — all this is beautiful 
and sublime to the eye, the ear, and the emotions; but 
it also is sounding brass and tinkling cymbal — the pass- 
ing echo of a heartless tune — apart from the spirit and 
life that incarnate and express the spiritual beauty of 
Christ. There have been some beautiful and lofty char- 
acters and lives outside of Christ, developed by ethical 
principles and precepts, without the Christly change of 



310 The Masterwheel 

life within ; but it was the beauty of a glittering legalism, 
a rose of earthly tint without the fragrance and beauty 
of heaven. 

It has been said : "Exquisite beauty resides with God. 
Unity and simplicity, joined together in different organs, 
are the principal sources of beauty. It resides in the 
good, the honest, and the useful to the highest physical 
and intellectual degree." It has been said again: "Ev- 
ery trait of beauty may be deferred to some virtue, as 
to innocence, candor, generosity, modesty, heroism." 
An Indian philosopher said that the starry heavens 
above our heads and the feelings of duty in our hearts 
were, to him, the two most beautiful things in the uni- 
verse. "By cultivating the beautiful," said Howard, 
"we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers ; by doing good 
we foster those already belonging to humanity." Truly 
did the poet say : 

Labor in the path of duty 

Gleamed up like a thing of beauty; 

Beauty shone in self-denial, 

In the sternest hour of trial, 

In a meek obedience 

To the will of Providence, 

In lofty sympathies 

That, forgetting selfish ease, 

Prompted acts that sought the good 

Of every spirit, understood 

The wants of every human heart, 

Eager ever to impart 

Blessings to the weary soul 

That hath felt the world's control. 

I would not in the least detract from the culture of 
physical beauty or discourage a taste for its excellence 
and blessings. I think the body, the form, the face, ev- 
ery lineament and feature of our physical being, should 



Love of Beauty 311 

be trained to keep its beauty and to enhance instead of 
detracting from it. Perfect health and care for our 
bodies — their cleanliness and dress, their comfort and 
refreshment — should be studiously and assiduously ob- 
served. God gave us these bodies to preserve against 
the inroads of disease and death, to beautify as best we 
can. Even in death we should show as lovely and beau- 
tiful faces as grace and culture will enable us to leave 
behind, upon which our friends and loved ones may 
look with pleasure even in their sorrows. Often the 
pale corpse still seems lifelike and beautiful, when the 
furrows of pain and care have vanished, and when the 
peaceful face is clothed with the parting smile of its 
habitual grace in life. We want to live and die with a 
sweet, beautiful face — the last thing of us that the 
world will look upon and mark as the index of our past 
life. Yes, cultivate the beautiful in person; and re- 
member that nothing gives to the face more beauty, to 
the form more dignity, than a conscience clear within 
and a mind and heart nobly and usefully trained. If 
by nature you are not so beautiful as others in form 
and feature, try to excel in the culture of grace and man- 
ner. As said by Henry Home: "An agreeable figure 
and winning manner, which inspire affection without 
love, are always new. Beauty loses its relish, the 
graces never; after the longest acquaintance, they are 
no less agreeable than at first." 

We should drink from the cup of beauty at every 
hand. Nature, art, poetry, eloquence, architecture, mu- 
sic, are all full of the beautiful; and to have a critical 
taste for these things greatly enhances the aesthetic fac- 
ulty and gives pleasure to the pure and well-balanced 
mind. The flowers, the trees, the grassy lawn, the 
fields, the hills and streams, the mountains and the val- 



312 The Masterwheel 

leys, the movements of animals, the flight of birds, their 
songs and melodies, the starry heavens at night, the 
dawning and the gloaming, the very clouds with their 
gorgeous coloring and shifting, even the storm and the 
tempest with their thunder and lightning or their fall 
of rain or snow — all these things should be seen and 
studied with a view to their beauty and grandeur. How 
commonplace is nature to the dull and unpoetic mind! 
Everything is old and nothing is ever new to the stupid 
spirit that takes no notice of nature's charms, whereas 
the student of nature and the lover of the beautiful find 
in almost every object an exhaustless spring of fresh- 
ness and joy. The sun, the moon, the stars, never grow 
old; the hills and the mountains are always new; the 
beautiful flowers are always sweeter and prettier than 
ever before. "What do you see yonder in that valley ?" 
asked an enthusiastic artist of an old mountaineer, as 
they were climbing the side of a lofty summit. "I see 
nothing but a man riding a horse," said the old man. 
The artist did not' see the object caught by the practical 
eye of the mountaineer; and the mountaineer, who had 
looked over the splendid scene a thousand times, did not 
catch the view and inspiration of the delighted artist. 
Such is the dull, stupid, unaesthetic life of millions who 
lose all the delight and joy that beauty everywhere un- 
folds from the pages of nature. The story is old, but it 
gives an illustration of another lover of the beautiful, 
who woke one morning with the music of the hounds in 
a fox chase. "Listen to that music !" said he to his un- 
musical companion, who replied: "I can't hear anything 
for those infernal hounds !" Another lover of the beau- 
tiful went into ecstasies one morning as the rising sun 
touched the tops of snow-covered mountains, painting 
the scene with a crimson glory. "Isn't that grand?" he 



Love of Beauty 313 

exclaimed to an old, practical farmer by his side. "Yes," 
said the farmer, "it's a good day for killing hogs!" 

The lover of the beautiful, to the extent of his ability, 
should read books of poetry and eloquence, visit art gal- 
leries, attend musical performances, and study the va- 
rious fashions and forms of architecture with all their 
different shades and paintings, in order to cultivate the 
aesthetic sense. A man has nothing to do but keep his 
eyes and ears open, and spend a little money for the pur- 
pose, in order to refine his mind and heart with a taste 
for everything beautiful in the handiwork of man, as in 
the handiwork of God. One good book of poetry, like 
Shakespeare or Milton or Browning, well read and 
studied, would wake in the soul with any fancy or imag- 
ination a taste for beautiful thought; and so of a thou- 
sand other books of prose and poetry which stir the 
beautiful and grand already latent in the soul. How 
thrilling to look upon the splendid productions of art in 
painting and sculpture wherein genius has drawn upon 
canvas, or chiseled in marble, the entrancing scenes 
from Nature, the symbolic illustrations of great truths, 
or historic events which delineate and make present the 
past! 



LOVE OF THE GOOD 




HE picture of an angelic woman loving and 
being loved by the sheep and the doves she 
caresses illustrates the love of the good. In 
contrast is Satan in the background under 
cover with his goats and his ravens, the antitheses of 
sheep and doves. He is sending one of his goats to min- 
gle with the sheep and corrupt them, as his whole and 
only purpose is to do evil and hurt God's people. But 
for the Devil's goats and ravens, God's lambs and doves 
would never get into trouble and the love of the good 
would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. 

The greatest compliment which can be paid to man 
is to call him "good." Many, if not most, men are jeal- 
ous of their reputation for smartness rather than for 
goodness; and there are some who would rather be 
called knaves than fools. Of course there is a good- 
for-nothing good in some people that is not complimen- 
tary; but to have a good-for-something good is the 
greatest possession of this life, and the one thing which 
will be rewarded hereafter; for wisdom and greatness 
without goodness, whatever their worth and glory in 
this world, are nothing in the sight of God. We should 
covet to be wise, great, and good; but if we cannot make, 
such attainment in wisdom and greatness, we should 
nevertheless strive to be at least good and good for 
something. There is greatness in goodness — a moral 
(3i4) 





cH 



mm 



Love of the Good 317 

grandeur in useful goodness — however limited the ca- 
pacities or obscure the station of the good man; and 
whatever may be the world's estimate of him, all heaven 
smiles upon him and has a crown of glory for him. 

Honor and shame from no condition rise ; 
Act well your part — there all the honor lies. 

There can be no love for the good except by those 
who are good themselves. The bad may respect the 
good, but they cannot love it. They may wish them- 
selves good, but there can be no affection for a quality 
they do not themselves possess or strive for. The color- 
blind cannot appreciate colors; nor can the man without 
an appetite relish dainties. The good man alone loves 
God, as the true man loves truth, as the aesthetic man 
loves beauty, or as the intellectual love knowledge; and 
hence a man has to be good and do good before he can 
love good. The bad man may become good and so 
learn to love it ; but whatever his appreciation for good- 
ness, or his estimate of good people, beforehand, he can- 
not love the quality until he possesses it. People may 
admire things they do not love. The judgment of all 
men realizes the value of goodness and the blessedness 
of its effect upon those who have it. There is an hon- 
esty among the worst which confesses that the goodness 
in others would be well for them. They often sympa- 
thize with the good in affliction or defend them in trou- 
ble, and highly honor them when they die; but they do 
not love their goodness. It takes an ethical life and 
character to appreciate and love the abstract quality we 
call good or goodness. 

There are many forms and degrees of goodness. 
There is a natural goodness and a spiritual goodness, 
actuated by different motives and developed by different 



318 The Masterwheel 

processes. The natural man, because of proper train- 
ing and culture, may love honesty, truthfulness, and 
morality without any other motive than a sense of right, 
or of policy, or of public opinion. Most men have a 
conscientious fear of wrong in the sight of God and in 
the light of relationship with their fellow-man. Some 
are born better by nature than others, and grow more 
easily than others into the love and pride of righteous- 
ness; and the noblest and greatest examples of natural 
goodness are found alike among heathen, Jews, and 
Christians in all ages. Even among infidels are found 
men of great natural benevolence and beneficence, who 
have proved benefactors of the human race, but they are 
few. Some of the greatest charities have been bestowed 
upon their fellows by men who believe but little in God 
and nothing in Christ. Many of the greatest reformers 
and revolutionists who broke with tyranny and fought 
for liberty have been such men as Rousseau, Voltaire, 
and Tom Paine. Thousands of men who have never 
made any pretense to religion have put to blush the illib- 
erally and the want of philanthropy among some Chris- 
tians. Girard left a great endowed college for poor 
boys in Philadelphia, and with it the restriction that min- 
isters of the gospel are not to be allowed to visit it. Some 
men by nature and culture, without any spirituality at 
all, are moral, virtuous, upright, chaste, honorable, 
whose integrity is unimpeachable; and they, too, often, 
put much of our Christianity to blush by comparison. 
All honor to the natural good and noble men and women 
who have done so many things worthy of religion. 
What the motives or principles actuating such lives and 
characters is not a question at this point; it is sufficient 
to say that the world has been vastly benefited and 
blessed by the words, deeds, and examples of men great 



Love of the Good 319 

and good in the natural sense. They have loved the 
good and pursued it through life; and when they died, 
their works have lived after them. Such men as Aris- 
totle, Socrates, Plato, Pliny, Aurelius, and thousands of 
the like were great and good men by nature and culture, 
and have left the heritage of their fame to all genera- 
tions. 

But there is a good or goodness in a spiritual sense 
that is eternal in its life and results, and which only 
Christians can claim to love and possess. Their right- 
eousness is not self-righteousness, and they do good upon 
a principle and a motive which come from God by the 
impartation of a new life. They do right not only for 
right's sake, but for Christ's sake; and they recognize 
that a "good conscience" has its source in their regard 
for the law of God. The highest good and the purest 
motive for doing good lie in the recognition of God's 
right to our obedience upon the ground that God is the 
author of goodness and righteousness and the source of 
all law. Goodness and righteousness as a policy or a 
principle would have the sanction of natural and inher- 
ent law, irrespective of any belief in God ; but in addition 
to and above this fact, the Christian recognizes God and 
obeys his law because he is the highest source of author- 
ity for all goodness. Hence, Christian conscience is not 
merely a moral sense, or a legal sentiment, or a sense 
arising from policy, relationship, or fear, but a spiritual 
force. Cornelius, the rich young ruler, and Saul of 
Tarsus were legalists of the highest moral character — 
blameless as touching the righteousness which is of the 
law; but Cornelius had to be converted, and Paul 
admitted that in the light of Christ's righteousness he 
was the "chief of sinners;" while the rich young ruler, 
who claimed that he had kept the commandments from 



320 The Masterwheel 

his youth up, turned his back upon Christ when put to 
the test of his spiritual religion. Christ loved him for 
his moral integrity and his beautiful amiability, but his 
goodness and righteousness could not give him an en- 
trance into the kingdom of heaven. All goodness which 
has no Christ in it, and no Christ for its object, merit, 
and motive, is human and selfish, and can live only for 
the glory of this world. It is of the earth earthy, how- 
ever noble from human standpoints; and however re- 
warded and honored here, it can have no crown here- 
after. Nothing has God's immortal stamp upon it ex- 
cept under the seal and sign of Christ's Mood and right- 
eousness, in which we find our sole merit with God ; and 
so far as eternity is concerned, all our natural goodness 
and self-righteousness are lost, since God and his Christ 
are not the merit, measure, and object of our motive, 
deed, and life. 

To be good and do good is the climax of life, its loftiest 
end. Shakespeare makes the demagogue, Mark An- 
tony, say over the dead body of Caesar that "the evil 
that men do lives after them" and that "the good is 
often interred with their bones;" but it is a fact that 
the good that men do is no oftener interred with their 
bones than evil. Some writer said: "A good deed is 
never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and 
he that plants kindness gathers love ; pleasure bestowed 
upon a grateful mind is never sterile, but generally 
gratitude begets reward." Whittier says: 

A charmed life old goodness hath ; the tares 
May perish, but the grain is not for death. 

There may be individual or isolated instances of 
"love's labor lost" upon the object loved; but it is not 
lost upon the lover, and perhaps not lost in example to 



Love of the Good 321 

others. It pays to be and do good, whether it ever ben- 
efits or blesses another or not; but it is seldom, if ever, 
that it is the fate of goodness to find its only blossom in 
reflex action upon the good themselves. There is com- 
paratively little soil so sterile as not to yield back some- 
thing to the sunshine and dew of heaven. The barren 
rock will produce moss and lichens in response to light 
and moisture; and while goodness and mercy, like sun- 
shine and dew, are apparently wasted in their abundance 
and exuberance upon evil and ingratitude, yet there al- 
ways results "here a little and there a little" crop which 
in the aggregate makes up a large total. As there is 
nothing lost or destroyed by change in the elements of 
the physical world, the same is true in the intellectual 
and moral world. We are commanded to cast our bread 
upon the waters, knowing that it will come back after 
many days, and we are to sow the seed of goodness not 
knowing whether this or that shall prosper. A good life 
lived or a good deed done may sometimes have no imme- 
diate effect, but good seed sown to-day may come up 
at a different time and in a different soil, far away from 
the planting. Live right and do right, and God will 
take care of the result and the reward. 

It is said of Christ, who is the express image of the 
Father, and who was God manifest in the flesh, that "He 
went about doing good." What a magnificent vocation 
in a world of sin, misery, and suffering! What a field 
for operations and opportunities ! One of the great pur- 
poses of God in the permission of evil was to give scope 
for the positive and active forces of goodness. Though 
some may think this old world would have been a scene 
of negative monotony if the Devil had not planted his 
cloven hoof in the Garden of Eden, yet we know there 
is no such thing as a "necessary evil" in the sense that 

21 



322 The Masterwheel 

evil is essential in itself to good. It may be essential to 
the development of the greatest good to the greatest 
number by contrast and conflict of good with evil and in 
overcoming it. Warfare with evil and misery makes 
goodness positive, progressive, mighty, if not merito- 
rious; and hence God has left a universal field for the 
operation of virtue, honesty, benevolence, and benefi- 
cence — a field so beautifully and grandly occupied by 
Christ and his followers. But for God and good in the 
world, the human race had long since been swallowed 
up in the awful cataclysm of its own ruin wrought by 
evil. Therefore it means something to be good and 
do good in the world, and it is really the demonstration 
of the Christlike on earth. Emerson said, "Your good- 
ness must have some edge to it, else it is none;" and it 
is the awful temptation to evil, as well as the conflict 
with evil, which gives edge to goodness. La Rochefou- 
cauld says: "None deserve the character of being good 
who have not spirit enough to be bad ; goodness, for the 
most part, is either indolence or impotence/' 

There is little merit in a goodness that has no tempta- 
tion or that is not stimulated by conflict with evil and 
error, and there is certainly but little honor or reward 
for it. Positive goodness is always a virtue on fire and 
alive with aggression; and the best evidence of true 
goodness is not simply its example, but its patient con- 
flict with evil and its sufferings from persecution. The 
good man who has no fight with sin, within and without, 
is good for nothing. 

Some one says: "Goodness is love in action." The 
heart that truly loves is the only good heart, out of 
which flows every form of good nature, good humor, 
good character, and good works. Tt is love with the 
burden on its back, its hand to the plow, and its bosom 



Love of the Good 323 

to the storm. It is love in the haunts of poverty and 
vice, feeding the hungry and seeking the lost. It is 
love visiting the sick bedside and going to the prisoner 
in his cell, with comfort and promise. It is love in the 
Sunday school class and in the night school for the 
ragged poor. It is love everywhere, going about and 
doing good after the example of the Master. Love and 
good are inseparable; they are correlatives; and every 
good and noble thing ever done by mortals had love of 
some sort at the bottom of it. The lover of good is the 
only doer of permanent good. There may be good done 
for a selfish motive, for a selfish purpose, which will 
bless the beneficiary and profit the benefactor; but if it 
have not the savor of love, it has the smell of insincerity. 
As a great writer says, "There is no odor so bad as that 
which arises from goodness tainted." If goodness is 
love in action, then every deed done in love is a sacri- 
ficial offering, a sweet-smelling savor of praise to God. 



LOVE OF LEARNING 




N the pictorial presentation of this subject we 
discover two devoted students — a man and a 
woman — standing on the college campus and 
facing their Alma Mater, book in hand, ear- 
nestly in the pursuit of knowledge. What the result 
will be depends upon their persistent effort and a prac- 
tical application of their education, backed up by com- 
mon sense. Between the two and leaving college is 
another graduate, but still with long ears. He has a 
pile of books upon his back denominated "loved but use- 
less lore ;" and he represents that class of educated men 
whose learning is without common sense or useful ap- 
plication in life. He is the "bookworm" whose head is 
full of useless knowledge and who is well represented 
as the cultivated fool — an ass with his learning loaded 
upon his back. He does not use his knowledge, but only 
brays about what he knows. The biggest fool in the 
world is the learned fool. 

"Learning" is a comprehensive word. Not only is it 
the act of acquiring knowledge, but it implies a system- 
atic knowledge, such as the information gained from 
books and instruction. It means education, extensive 
literary and scientific culture, erudition. A man may 
be generally learned, or practically learned, as having 
special knowledge or skill, or as deeply versed in some 
art or profession. To know something about every- 
(3 2 4) 



I 



Love of Learning 327 

thing may be some attainment in information, but it is 
not properly called learning; and it is infinitely better 
to know everything about something than something 
about everything. 
Pope says: 

A little learning is a dangerous thing ; 
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring : 
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
And drinking largely sobers us again. 

There is a great deal of truth in what Pope says, but 
many people would be compelled to know nothing at 
all if his verse were to be the literal rule of learning; 
and those who learn much must first learn little. The 
danger of a "little learning" lies in the presumption of 
shallow minds, in trifling or experimenting with subjects 
about which they know but little, and which are too 
deep for their intellectual stature; but men of native 
wit and common sense have generally the wisdom to 
know their ignorance, and too much of humility to ven- 
ture into water beyond their depth. 

It seems to me a good thing for every man to get all 
the learning he can; and even a "little learning" is a 
blessed thing in the possession of a sensible and humble 
man. Any sort or degree of learning is a "dangerous 
thing" in the hands of an unbalanced mind ; and a smart 
fool is the biggest fool in the world. Any man who can 
be puffed up with learning either does not know much, 
or does not know what to do with his materials; and 
often so-called learned men, in their accumulation of 
knowledge or information, have only a great pile of 
lumber without shape or use, or, if used at all, without 
any orderly or useful construction. There are broad 
but shallow minds ; there are deep but narrow minds ; 
there are broad and deep minds — like rivers; and only 



328 The Masterwheel 

the broad and deep minds, whether little or much 
learned, know what to do with learning. There are 
some people very sprightly and brilliant who have a 
screw loose somewhere in the machinery of the brain, 
or have no bump of common sense upon the cranium, 
who are sometimes good readers or hearers, but in 
almost every instance they go awry in learning. The 
crank is sure to take issue with orthodoxy in science, 
art, or religion ; and the more learning he has, the worse 
for him and the world. 

The love of learning is characteristic only of a human 
being. There is within man the spirit of curiosity and 
inquiry, of experiment and invention, of discovery and 
investigation; and he has an innate thirst for knowl- 
edge and a faculty for coordinating, systematizing, and 
applying what he learns and knows to purposes of wis- 
dom and utility. It is an astonishing fact, how r ever, 
that very few love knowledge and wisdom sufficiently to 
become learned to any degree. With all the light that 
science and literature shed upon us, and with all the 
facilities offered by education and culture, thousands 
upon thousands never take advantage of them. There 
is a vast amount of intelligence in general which is 
forced upon the masses, or which they cannot escape; 
but one of the most culpable of sins is the fact that 
these masses refuse to drink from the cup of so much 
knowledge and wisdom, which is put to their lips by 
the dissemination of literature, the education of our 
schools and colleges, and by the accessibility of our 
libraries, bookstores, and news stands. Comparatively 
few of our children graduate even in our high schools; 
and only the struggling young men and women among 
the poor, who seek an education for some purpose, grad- 
uate and make scholars. The rich seldom graduate or 



Love of Learning 329 

learn anything beyond the pale of business, the society 
columns of the newspapers, or the reading of novels, 
theatrical criticisms, and sensational publications. 

Only the lover of learning feels the pleasure and 
delight of knowing something worth knowing. An in- 
telligent and well-read man or woman is the happiest 
being in the world — the freest from sensuous and sen- 
sual pleasures, the noblest and best qualified in business, 
and the best capable of taking a philosophic and lofty 
view of life. Such people live in an infinitely more en- 
larged circle of pleasure and usefulness, other things 
being equal, than the illiterate ignoramus. They are 
less given to narrow biases and soul-obscuring prej- 
udices; and they drink the cup of joy from foun- 
tains of nature and truth that the ignorant man knows 
not of. If they are poetic, they are full of poetry; if 
artistic, they are refined by art ; if literary, they are sur- 
charged with good books; if they are scientific or phil- 
osophic, they live in the realm of facts and phenomena, 
causes and effects, which afford them the satisfaction 
of enjoying the secrets of nature and the deductions of 
truth, absolutely unknown and unappreciated by the illit- 
erate world around them. What untold pleasure found 
in the pages of history, travel, romance, poetry, art, mu- 
sic, oratory, religion, science, philosophy, discovery, in- 
vention — even in lighter and more elementary form, 
which the masses could read and be delighted and ben- 
efited by their information and development! What a 
strange and inhuman thing it is to see thousands of boys 
and girls, young men and women in good circles of so- 
ciety and wearing fine clothes, who never read anything 
worth reading and to whom a book is a horror ! Thou- 
sands upon thousands buy books for the sake of having 
them, but never read them. 



330 The Masterwheel 

Even in our churches there are thousands of God's 
people who are ignoramuses, so far as literature is 
concerned. They do not even read their Bible, though 
they generally have a large family edition of it to grace 
their parlor tables. They never buy a religious book, 
many of them, except perhaps some controversial or 
schismatic volume, which excites their denomination- 
al partisanship or tickles their religious fancy ; and only 
a comparatively few of them take their religious weekly 
papers, though they cannot do without their political 
"dailies," which many people greedily read. With the 
Sunday sermon and the Sunday school helps, the great 
mass of Christians stop for religious information and 
education ; and the people, in proportion to their facilities 
in such a day as this, are not half so learned and pro- 
found in religious truth as our forefathers were. The 
grasp for money and the thirst for sensuous, if not sen- 
sual, pleasure give no time for reading or thought along 
solid or religious lines; and thousands of the people of 
God are hard at work all day for money, and are found 
at the playhouse at night for recreation. 

The only way for people to love learning of any degree 
is to learn something by searching for it. We get gold 
by digging for it, and love it all the more for that reason 
after getting it. Knowledge, like gold, does not hunt 
for us ; we have to hunt for it. There is plenty of it all 
about us ; but knowledge is a queenly woman that must 
be diligently sought after, and she will not be found of 
us until we seek her ; and when we find her, how we 
love her ! It is an easy matter to cultivate a literary 
taste and a thirst for knowledge, if we persist in the ef- , 
fort ; and it is a pursuit that has its own reward. It is 
a dreadful reflection upon a human being not to want 
to know more than he does; and worse than all is his 



Love of Learning 331 

indisposition to know anything. To be content to pass 
through this world, to be treading upon diamonds in 
the rough every day, with no disposition to pick them 
up, because we have to polish them — I mean literary dia- 
monds, worth more than all the gems in the mines of 
Africa — is the saddest reflection upon the intelligence 
of any people in such a day and generation as this. They 
clothe and bedeck their bodies ; they gratify their appe- 
tites and passions ; they do all and spend all for pleasure ; 
they grasp for the dollar and seek to satisfy their avarice 
and pride in material surroundings; but next to reli- 
gion, knowledge is the last thing they want. God gave 
us intellectual capacities for improvement and happi- 
ness. It would take only a little money and effort to 
cultivate a taste for intellectual attainments ; and yet the 
wants of the mind are never even thought of beyond 
the meager training of our children in the school, for 
the sake of respectability and for the sake of the practical 
purposes of life's merely material business. When the 
schoolroom is left, that is the last of study and learning, 
with the exception of the professional few who follow 
some specialty as a business for life; and the great mass 
of our children, when the schoolroom is left and the 
books laid down, draw a sigh of relief. 

Pythagoras well said: "He that knoweth not that 
which he ought to know is a brute beast among men ; he 
that knoweth no more than he hath need of is a man 
among brute beasts ; and he that knoweth all that may 
be known is a god amongst men." 



LOVE OF ELOQUENCE 




OR its purpose there is no power like oratory, 
no gift more noble and useful than eloquence. 
Eloquent speech has, in a great measure, 
moved the world, molded its opinions, and 
shaped the destinies of mankind. The sword, the pen, 
the press, are instruments of power. Books, periodicals, 
and papers wield untold influence. Science and art turn 
the wheels of fortune and progress ; but, as a rule, they 
must all be baptized in the fire of the orator's tongue in 
order to reach perfection. Even the word of God, "the 
sword of the Spirit/' must get its unction and its edge 
from sanctified lips, to convert the nations. "Preach 
the gospel to every creature," is Christ's indispensable 
commission; and what is true of the gospel is true of 
the propagandism of all truth. Discovery and inven- 
tion lay the foundation of every change and revolution ; 
but the orator popularizes and makes potent the studio, 
the pulpit, the forum, the hustings, the stage, the plat- 
form, the social and business circle. From the depths 
of antiquity the orator has been the agitator of thought 
and the mover of mankind. The flaming tongues of 
prophets and apostles, the harangues of warriors and 
chieftains, the discourses of sages and philosophers, the 
rhapsodies of poets and minstrels, are among the last- 
ing monuments of genius and eloquence. The glory of 
(332) 



Love of Eloquence 335 

Greece and Rome culminates in the greatness of Demos- 
thenes and Cicero. The splendor of France and En- 
gland bursts upon the world with the refulgence of Mira- 
beau and Pitt. Webster, Clay, and Calhoun form the 
radiant trinity of American eloquence at the height of 
our exalted statesmanship. Such men live deepest in 
the hearts of a country ; and the story of their eloquence 
and the imperishable treasury of their thought will con- 
tinue to educate and inspire the patriot, the statesman, 
and the political student, amid the vicissitudes of revolu- 
tion and change. They shall neither die nor be for- 
gotten by their fellow-countrymen. 

These shall resist the empire of decay, 
When time is o'er, and worlds have passed away ; 
Cold in the dust the perished heart may lie, 
But that which warmed it once can never die. 

Eloquence has not done everything, but it has given 
tone and force to everything. It is the great inspiration 
to motive and action. It is truth burning from the fer- 
vid heart, logic flashing from the fiery brain, pathos 
beaming from the lightening eye, clothing the whole 
form with the majesty of argument and the magic of 
persuasion. It is conviction aflame with sympathy, and 
speaking with an irresistible emphasis neither cold 
words nor spirit can convey. It is as the sunshine and 
dew to animate and inanimate nature. What a power 
in that truth which scintillates from luminous form and 
action, which is hurled like thunderbolts from a gesture, 
which clothes the speaker with a godlike demeanor! 
No wonder Daniel, the English poet, exclaimed: 

Pow'r above pow'rs ! O heavenly eloquence 
That with the strong rein of commanding words 

Dost manage, guide, and master th' eminence 
Of men's affections, more than all their swords! 



336 The Masterwheel 

Narrowly, eloquence may be defined as the best meth- 
od in which deep feeling may be expressed either by 
words, tones, looks, attitude, or gesture. To this end it 
requires profound knowledge, vigorous understanding, 
vivid imagination, forceful language, fluency of speech, 
movement of feeling, and animated action. It must af- 
fect, please, and persuade, as well as convince; and the 
first great qualification in the order is eloquence of 
thought. If eloquence is the power of expression, we 
must have something to express. Thought profound 
but simply put, strong but clear, forcible, original, and 
vivid, with imagination, is essential to oratorical elo- 
quence. Without thought, eloquence is the gush of 
mere declamation. There is nothing that can take the 
place of eloquent meaning. Tacitus says : "It is of elo- 
quence as of a flame : it requires matter to feed it, motion 
to express it, and it brightens as it burns." The only 
fuel to that flame is thought. 

Thought, to be truly eloquent, must be true. Sophist- 
ry and casuistry may be eloquent, but their effect is 
transient and evil. The stroke of the master hand for 
error or demagogy is a deadly blow to truth; and the 
orator falls under the characterization of Milton's Satan, 
the power of whose eloquence is thus expressed : 

His tongue 
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels. 

The line between truth and error, in the realm of 
the probable and in the heat of discussion, is often hard 
to draw by the partisan spirit; but there is nothing 
which gives such massive force to the orator as the con- 
sciousness of his integrity. Honesty and truthfulness 
are the soul and unction of eloquent thought. 



Love of Eloquence 337 

Again, thought, to be eloquent, must as far as pos- 
sible be original, both in itself and in its expression. 
Plagiarism and imitation, whether apparent or not, de- 
stroy inspiration and effectiveness in the speaker. As 
a stage play artist, he might imitate the genius of some 
dramatic author ; but this is simply the eloquence of the 
actor, not the orator. Every speaker feels the dignity 
of self-respect in his originality ; and his own conscious- 
ness of this fact will not only powerfully affect himself, 
but his auditors. 

Another element in the eloquence of thought is supe- 
riority. The consciousness of being ahead of his fellows 
or of his age and drawing the world at his feet has al- 
ways made the mightiest orator. Progress in sight of 
the future is eloquent with discovery ahead. The great 
leader may not always be popular, but he will be heard. 
The man ahead is often hated, but he is respected. To 
be a pioneer is to be abused, but it is eloquence to be the 
tallest peak among the mountains. Patrick Henry was 
ahead of his peers and his people, but that fact makes 
his oratory and eloquence gigantic. He was a Colum- 
bus, a Galileo, a Newton, in the forum. Nothing whets 
the flashing sword of eloquence like innovation. 

Eloquence is grandest in the mastery of emergencies. 
Readiness and forecast are essential to the great orator ; 
and eloquence reaches its climax in a crisis which meets a 
present dilemma in the shadow of coming events. Ti- 
midity is fatal to the orator under critical conditions, and 
the sublimest triumphs of eloquence are those which 
seize upon the advantage of a crisis. How important is 
self-confidence upon occasions of moment when you 
must know the situation and meet it ! Emerson says : 
"The great triumph of the orator is when he is lifted 
above himself; when consciously he makes himself the 

22 



338 The Masterwheel 

mere tongue of the occasion and the hour, and says what 
cannot but be said." 

Another essential to eloquence is feeling. "Those 
who would make me feel must feel themselves. " How- 
ever vigorous our thoughts, eloquence is tame without 
the heart. Oratory may be polished without eloquence, 
and it may be pleasing without persuasion. Webster 
said: "True eloquence does not consist in speech. It 
cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may 
toil in vain. Words and phrases may be marshaled in 
every way, but they cannot compass it. It must exist in 
the man, in the subject, in the occasion." The moral 
emotions give force to thought which makes it over- 
whelming and wholesome; and, after all, it is health of 
soul that makes vital eloquence. Bad men are often 
able and sometimes eloquent, but corruption destroys the 
power of otherwise impassioned speech. It is impossi- 
ble to declaim against the vice we practice, or in favor of 
the principle we violate. Hypocrisy cannot be eloquent ; 
and the true orator has no greater power than his con- 
scious integrity of character. As religion without love, 
so eloquence without noble purpose and true character of 
the orator is as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. 

Another element in eloquence is the manner of the 
orator. Chesterfield said : "The manner of your speak- 
ing is fully as important as the matter, as more people 
have ears to be tickled than understanding to judge." 
"Manner," said Bishop Middleton, "is everything with 
some people, and something with everybody." "Grace 
is to the body what good sense is to the mind ;" manner 
is one of the graces of the art, and contributes largely to 
the power of eloquence. 

Essential to manner is the absence of ranting or affec- 
tation. In order to be eloquent, the orator must forget 



Love of Eloquence 339 

himself. The end of eloquence is truth; and that truth 
would better be badly told than to be exaggerated, over- 
drawn, or misrepresented. It is legitimate to employ 
art, but it is disgusting to display it in oratory. Even 
when art is legitimately utilized, it is the part of elo- 
quence to employ the maxim, Ars est celare art em (True 
art is to conceal art). Otherwise the power of eloquence 
is vitiated, and the speaker appears in the role of pre- 
tender. Nature and truth, however crude in expres- 
sion, are eloquent; and all the arts of affectation or 
overdrawing will not aid them. Nevertheless, there is 
untold power in the true and proper culture of manner ; 
and we should appreciate that fact in order to be truly 
eloquent. Mrs. Welby has beautifully said : 

There is a charm in delivery, a magical art, 
That thrills like a kiss from the lips to the heart ; 
'Tis the glance, the expression, the well-chosen word, 
By whose magic the depths of the spirit are stirred. 
The smile, the mute gesture, the soul-stirring pause ; 
The eyes sweet expression, that melts while it awes ; 
The lip's soft persuasion, its musical tone — 
O, such were the charms of an eloquent one. 



"•> 



LOVE OF FAME 




AME'S mountain, with its temple on the top, 
is pictured in the illustration opposite as a 
rugged height — marked at every step from 
base to summit by some motto or principle 
with which to grasp firmer and spring higher toward 
the consummation of some noble ambition. Of the va- 
rious kinds of men who come to this mountain some get 
to the top ; some are on the way to the top, and straining 
every nerve to get there; one there is who not only 
climbs but helps another ; others there are who lose their 
hold, or sit down on the way, or who turn back from 
the struggle. Some stop at the base, or turn away with 
indifference, or go back into the Vale of Obscurity, or 
stand looking up to see the mountain's great height. 
Again, there are those who, after reaching the top, fall 
off, and by some misfortune lose or destroy that which 
they have won. 

To the left of the mount is the Vale of Obscurity, from 
which men come to try the climb to fame. To the left 
of the Vale are three smaller mountains — the tallest, Mt. 
Notoriety, the summit of which is reached by those of 
unenviable fame, who display themselves there with 
ludicrous conceit, or for some selfish purpose. The next 
is Mt. Failure, where many a man who lost his hold 
upon the mountain of Fame, short of success, has landed. 
(34o) 




Love of Fame. 



Love of Fame 343 

and where, depressed and broken, he is seen in despair. 
The last and lowest is Mt. Infamy, upon the top of 
which you behold those who have reached a bad reputa- 
tion by prominence in wrong which they tried to make 
popular, and where they appear bowed at last in dis- 
grace. 

The only true fame that is worth the name is that 
which comes to man as an object unsought. Man may 
achieve fame, and many have it as an object of ambition, 
but it is to such as "a flower on a dead man's heart." 
To hunt for fame is like hunting for pleasure — there is 
little or no satisfaction in it when found. The happi- 
ness that comes unsought in the life of virtue and in the 
discharge of duty is real and enjoyable beyond measure ; 
and so of fame that crowns the life of virtue and noble 
deeds that had no other motive than the glory of God, 
the good of our fellow-man, and a true sense of personal 
honor. It is said that Milton neither aspired to present 
fame, nor ever expected it. His only ambition was "to 
leave something written to after ages, that they should 
not willingly let it die." It is not unreasonable or 
wrong for men to desire fame through excellence of 
work. There is no sin in the aspiration to climb to the 
very highest pitch in achieving something great and 
good; but to try to be or do anything for the sake of 
fame is to fall short of its glory. To enjoy a fine repu- 
tation, a good name, a noble fame, ought to be the aim 
of every human being; but when it becomes the end of 
life as a mere satisfaction to pride and ambition, it is 
like making money for its own sake. 

Young says of fame : 

Fame is the shade of immortality, 

And in itself a shadow. Soon as caught 

Contemn'd ; it shrinks to nothing in the grasp. 



344 The Masterwheel 

but evidently Young's idea of fame as the "shadow" 
caught by ambition does not refer to the honor and 
glory won by exalted genius in the line of exalted life 
and deeds. Herrick calls fame "the breath of popular 
applause/' but his definition is but the confusion of real 
fame with transient notoriety. Pope says it is "a fan- 
cied life in another's breath;" but this is not the lofty 
Milton's idea, who says that "fame is no plant that grows 
on mortal soil." Again Young calls fame not only a 
"shadow," but "the shame of immortality;" but some 
fame is immortal and not shameful. We might quote 
further the sentiment of famous men who depreciate 
the merit of fame ; but in every instance they are speak- 
ing either of a temporary and unworthy notoriety, or else 
they exhibit a morbid sense of humility with reference 
to their own attainments or achievements, and therefore 
with reference to the fame of others. 

Other great and good men have spoken the opposite 
on the subject. "Who despises fame," said Milton, 
"will soon renounce the virtues that deserve it." Bul- 
wer says: "Better than fame is still the wish for fame, 
the constant training for a glorious strife." "Fame is 
the perfume of heroic deeds," said Socrates; and Solon 
declares, "He that will sell his fame will also sell the 
public interest." "As the pearl ripens in the obscurity 
of its shell, so ripens in the tomb all the fame that is 
truly precious," said a great writer. 

I know of nothing more valuable to a man than an 
honest fame. It is more than money or friends to him 
in carrying the ends of life and in promoting a good 
cause. The words and deeds of men take their value 
by their names and reputations. The tritest saying or 
the smallest deed of a great and distinguished man 
weighs like gold; and the grandest words and works 



Love of Fame 345 

of an obscure man, however valuable to the public, go 
barely noticed. Many a preacher has had more art and 
ability in constructing sermons than Spurgeon, but 
Spurgeons feeblest expression was caught by the world 
on account of the genius and character that lay behind 
it. His fame rests upon his great piety, his immense 
force of character, his genius for evangelical preaching 
and work, his spiritual as well as his intellectual power, 
and upon the massive results of his ministry ; and it will 
continue to project him into the hearts of millions in 
the centuries to come. 

Somebody has said that "Celebrity is the chastise- 
ment of merit and the punishment of talent;" and Cha- 
pin says, "It is the penalty of fame that a man must ever 
keep rising." All this and more is true. Persecution 
is the price which progressive and useful genius has al- 
ways had to pay for laudable and permanent success; 
and the greatest leader of thought and activity, once 
launched out upon some ideal and glorious purpose, can- 
not stop short lest he meet obloquy, if not infamy. A 
man can never get a reputation and go to bed, and he 
seldom gets a reputation at all worth having without 
suffering for it. Columbus and Washington live for- 
ever in the heart of the world, but they succeeded along 
new paths in winning their triumphs against great odds. 
They had forecast and faith, coupled with conviction 
and the courage to persist, without which the most daz- 
zling genius and ability are sure of failure. 

It may be true that "those of whom we speak least 
upon earth are best known in heaven." Thousands do 
not covet fame, much less thirst for a little brief notori- 
ety. The great point in life is to please God and bless 
the world we live in ; and he who does this, whether fa- 
mous among men or not, occupies a high place of honor 



346 The Masterwheel 

with God. The man who develops his one talent, or 
his two, will have a good reward and hear the same 
''Well done" as the man who doubled his five. 

O what a mockery is earthly fame or glory lost in the 
light of heaven! What will it be worth in perdition? 
There will be no consolation in being a big or a famous 
man in hell. Think of Alexander the Great lost ! There 
is a sort of idea in the world that God respects people 
because they are big and smart and famous. The hero 
worshiper that runs after great folks can't conceive that 
their ideals and idols may be an abomination in the sight 
of God. They forget that God is no respecter of per- 
sons. 

Who that surveys this span of earth we press, 
This speck of life in Time's great wilderness, 
This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas, 
The past, the future, two eternities — 
Would sully the bright spot or leave it bare, 
When he might build him a bright temple there ; 
A name that long shall hallow all its space, 
And be each purer soul's high resting place? 

True fame is that sort of immortality by which when 
a man is dead he yet liveth and doeth good. Generally, 
no man lives for all time who does not live ahead of 
his time. It takes something in advance of the world 
to make and perpetuate fame. It seldom can be won by 
following in old tracks except to make them larger and, 
however created by accident or dazzling with novelties, 
it can never live after us. True and permanent fame 
must be co-relative with the greatest excellence. 

The rewards of God are based upon fidelity according 
to ability, and not upon distinctions of honor as conr 
ferred by men. To whom much is given, of him much 
will be required ; to whom little is given, of him little will 
be required. Even the apostle Paul will be no bigger 



Love of Fame 347 

with God, however much bigger in himself, than the 
least and feeblest saint who has been and done the best 
he could. The greater the man and the greater his 
earthly fame, the greater his responsibility, because of 
him much will be expected. The most dazzling genius 
the earth ever knew was Napoleon. No man ever won 
a more shining fame; but he will be among the least 
known in eternity — even granting that he might have 
died a saint. Though an instrument in the hands of 
Providence for the punishment of the nations and for 
the demolition of old effete despotisms and superstitions 
he never had God in view, and, in the exhaustion of his 
ambition in the gratification of his own selfish policy, he 
lived and died the least known to glory in heaven. 



LOVE OF MUSIC 




WO pictures accompany this chapter. The 
first is a representation of the love of music 
— common. An old-time fiddler went out to 
play at a country ball one night, and as he re- 
turned late to his home he was threatened by a pack of 
wolves. Knowing the effect of music upon the animal 
as well as human nature, he mounted a fence and played 
for his life with his violin. The wolves ceased their 
demonstrations, stopped, stood, sat down, and listened 
to the music, as if charmed out of their ravenous nature, 
until help could come from a neighboring house. 

In the second picture we have represented the love of 
music — classic. The woman whose performance charms 
the winged cherubs is the impersonation of that form 
of cultivated music which enchants the more intellectual 
and educated classes, and causes men and women to 
hang for hours upon the rendition of the exquisite mas- 
terpieces of this fine art. 

While the poet puts nature and truth in verse, and 
the artist does the same on canvas or in marble, the 
musician translates them into notes and sounds. Any 
pleasing combination of sounds — any form of melody * 
or harmony — is music; and the science of music consists 
in "combining tones in rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic 
order, so as to produce intelligible and agreeable effects 
(348) 




Love of Music — Common. 



Love of Music 351 

on the ear." The first music we read of is that men- 
tioned by Job in referring to creation : 

When the morning stars sang together, 
And all the sons of God shouted for joy. 

This music of the spheres and of the angels in antiphonal 
concert and harmony was expressive of joy over God's 
handiwork in the beginning. It was, perhaps, from the 
ideal and inspiration of nature that the art of music had 
its origin. So we speak of the music of the birds, the 
music of the winds, the music of the sea, as caught by 
the genius and spirit of the musician. 

The art of music began with simple and untutored 
sounds, ultimately reduced by culture to melody and 
finally to melody and harmony combined, reaching its 
present perfection in the orchestral symphony, which is 
now recognized as the highest form of music. 

Few people can be found who do not love music. 
There may not be many poets or artists, nor so many to 
love and admire their work, but almost everybody loves 
that harmony of sounds so agreeable to the ear, called 
music. Love of poetry and art may not be a test of 
character, but, according to the immortal Shakespeare, 
love of music is. 

The man that hath no music in himself, 

Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 

Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils ; 

The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 

And his affections dark as Erebus; 

Let no such man be trusted. 

If there is one art in the world which has more 
followers and lovers than any other, it is music. There 
are whole families and generations who have a musical 
strain in their being; and the negro race seems full of 



352 The Masterwheel 

music. The most marvelous musical prodigy in history 
is a negro, "Blind Tom." Ignorant of all else but music, 
he seems to have had his every faculty turned into the 
musical channel and magnified. It seems that nature, 
so full of music herself, has, in the absence of many 
other blessings, almost universally endowed the human 
race with the musical faculty or sentiment in order, 
doubtless, to give us pleasure and to afford us that 
sweet solace in trial and that mighty charm against evil 
which good music can so abundantly give. 

In all ages the power of music has been recognized 
and employed for its specific purpose — to bewitch the ear 
and charm the feelings. As far back as history goes, 
we find music and musical instruments among the na- 
tions. Long before the flood, in the very beginning of 
the race, one of the offspring of Cain, Jubal, "was the 
father of all such as handle the harp and pipe ;" and it is 
clear that music, vocal and instrumental, was contempo- 
rary almost with the origin of man. At the time of 
Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians used the "cornet, 
flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of 
music;" and they employed its witchery to aid in the 
idolatrous worship of Nebuchadnezzar's image — in 
spite of which the three Hebrew children were faithful 
to God. The worship of the Hebrew tabernacle at the 
time of David was accompanied with the music of the 
trumpet, psaltery, harp, timbrel, stringed instruments, 
cymbals, and with the vocal rendition of the Psalms. In 
the time of Christ they sang hymns and spiritual songs. 
The Greeks and the Romans were so devoted to music, 
and regarded it as such an insoluble mystery, as to 
attribute its power and efficacy to the gods. Orpheus, 
the spell of whose wonderful lyre drew after him trees, 
stones, and floods, was so delightful to grim Pluto, the 




Love of Music — Classic. 



Love of Music 355 

god of the underworld, that he was permitted to take his 
dead wife, Eurydice, out of Hades. Among the very rud- 
est and most savage people, music, though it consisted in 
nothing more than the beating of tom-toms and the utter- 
ance of weird and plaintive chantings, with little refer- 
ence to melody or harmony, has ever been a well-known 
factor in their worships and their w r arfare. Perhaps 
therenever was a people on earth that did not have the 
instincts of music, and w T ho did not originate and love it 
in some form, however rude; but like all other arts, it 
has developed to its full perfection and beauty only 
among civilized and enlightened people, through long- 
continued and progressive improvement. 

The power of music may be judged by its uses. In 
religion it has always been the beautiful accompaniment 
of worship. Nothing is more inspiring and uplifting 
than heartfelt congregational singing, especially when 
vast numbers join in choral praise and adoration of God. 
One of the beauties and glories of the religion of Jesus 
Christ is the vast and comprehensive production and 
arrangement of hymnal and choral music adapted to 
worship, and the life of almost every Christian is daily 
attuned by the familiar songs and melodies which have 
been wrought into the fiber of his being. 

A religion without music is a religion without love 
or life; and he that believes, prays and works for the 
Master, should always be attuned with the songs of Zion. 
Never but once do we read of God's people hanging 
their harps upon the willows — when they went into cap- 
tivity; and doubtless then with breaking hearts they 
often took down their harps and sang, with subdued 
melody, some of the old songs of Zion. 

In sadness and in gladness the Christian draws from 
music his solace and inspiration, and in the great work 



356 The Masterwheel 

of soul-saving he finds it a mighty force with which to 
overcome the powers of evil and break the impenitent 
heart. 

There is hardly a spot of earth, a home, or an institu- 
tion, a club, or society, in which the charm and the power 
of music are not employed. Even the streets are the 
scenes of musical performances on the hand organ, the 
portable piano, the harp, or the violin. From thousands 
of our windows, daily and nightly, volumes of music in 
every cadence, sweet and full of joy, pour upon the ear 
and heart of a passing world. Even the Devil knows 
its power and utilizes its forces for his purposes. The 
saloon, the dance hall, the theater, the gambling hell, 
the Sunday park, the club, the lewd house all sing and 
play to charm and attract from the path of virtue, to lull 
and deaden the conscience in the indulgence of passion 
and appetite and godless pleasure. In camp and on the 
battlefield the bands play, to cheer the soldiers separated 
from home and family, to arouse courage and bravery 
amid the perils of war, and so transform the horrors 
of conflict and bloodshed into the pomp and pageantry 
of mortal combat. Our occasions of state, whatever the 
kind or the object, in the midst of banners and proces- 
sions, are moved to animation and sympathy by the 
sway and swell of music, which inspires enthusiasm. 
O the power of music for good or ill, for it has no middle 
ground between ! It is a positive and nearly irresistible 
force for almost every purpose, right or wrong, and 
one who has a cause to carry knows, with Shakespeare, 
that there is 

. . . naught so stockish, hard, and full of rage, 
But music for the time doth change his nature. 

The power of music even upon the most savage and 
cruel heart is illustrated in the capture of Bagdad by 



Love of Music 357 

Sultan Amurath, who took thirty thousand Persians 
prisoners and sentenced them to death. Among the 
number was a musician, who sought an interview with 
the Sultan before the order was executed, and, on being 
presented, exhibited his lyre as the symbol of his art. 
Thereupon he sang and played the "Capture of Bag- 
dad and Triumph of Amurath." The heart of the blood- 
thirsty tyrant- was so touched as he listened to the strains 
of the lyre that, overpowered with its wonderful melody, 
he repented of his cruel commands, revoked the order 
of death, and set the prisoners at liberty. 

It often appeals to the emotions without any thought 
or meaning at all. A beautiful poem or work of art 
appeals to the emotions indirectly through the intellect; 
but it is the province of music to go straight to the heart 
through the ear, sometimes without any reference to 
words or ideas. The voice of a man sent up by different 
intonations into the dome of the baptistery of Pisa trans- 
mutes itself into the most wondrous variation of musical 
strains, that thrill with a singular pathos and delight; 
and yet these strains cannot be translated into any mean- 
ing that gives the reason why the affections are so 
touched. There are, however, different tones which ap- 
ply with apparent reason to the different states of the 
soul. There are sad strains that go with our sorrows, 
as there are glad notes that suit our pleasures, and there 
are characteristic strains for praise, triumph, conflict, 
great occasions, national enthusiasm, and the like ; while 
the words of hymns and other songs have a musical set- 
ting appropriate to the meaning or sentiment involved. 
"Way Down upon the Suwanee River" or "My Old Ken- 
tucky Home" could not be put to the tune of "Yankee 
Doodle" or "Dixie;" nor could the tune of "Old Hun- 
dred" be put to the song "Awake, My Soul, in Joyful 



358 The Masterwheel 

Lays." There is reason in music, therefore, in the cor- 
respondence of sound with sense ; and yet there is a pro- 
found mystery in music from the standpoint of its won- 
derful and varied effect upon the mind and heart. 

It is the exhaustion of language to define the nature 
or describe the effect of music. Addison says that it is 
"all of heaven we know;" and Mrs. Child says, "Music 
is a prophecy of what life is to be.'' Luther called it 
"One of the fairest and most glorious gifts of God;" 
and he said again, "Next to theology, I give to music 
the highest place of honor." It is hard to tell what it is 
not, for it is the medicine of the breaking heart and 
the balm of the wounded spirit, the nurse of the infant 
soul and the solace of old age ; it brings back our buried 
hopes and garners our sweetest memories; it sweeps 
away the dust of everyday life and freshens and glad- 
dens courage for the toils and conflicts of the morrow; 
it is the friend of pleasure and the helper of wisdom; it 
subdues evil and intensifies good. 

Music is the only one of the fine arts that is the com- 
mon property of both man and animal and of all classes 
of men. The serpent and the spider can be charmed 
with music, and the horse and the elephant delight in 
its melody. Luther said: "Music is a discipline, and a 
mistress of order and good manners ; and she makes the 
people milder and gentler, more moral and more reason- 
able." The great Napoleon said: "Music, of all the lib- 
eral arts, has the greatest influence over the passions, 
and is that to which the legislator ought to give the 
greatest encouragement." 

The lover of music need not be discouraged because 
some bad people have been fine musicians. The Devil 
hates music, but he knows how to use it for evil, and has 
in his employ some of the most adept performers. It 



Love of Music 359 

is often astonishing to see what beautiful and effective 
music can come from the soul of a corrupt man or wom- 
an, in vocal tone or touch of instrument. It is often true, 
however, that very bad people have a good side to them, 
and deep down in their hearts there may be poetic, ar- 
tistic, or musical gifts that still live with great vigor. 

There is only one place in the universe where there 
will be no music — that is in hell. A note of joy or 
praise or triumph will never be heard in that eternal 
abode of despair; but heaven is represented as full of 
music from an angelic chorus. It is wonderful the mu- 
sic that swells here below from the harp of even fifty 
strings in the hands of a skillful player ; but think of the 
ecstatic music which shall be made by the hands of saints 
innumerable sweeping harps of a thousand strings ! If 
nobody can express by logic the effect of music upon 
us here — if earthly music is a kind of inarticulate and 
unfathomable speech which leads to the border of the 
infinite and eternal — what must be its power of expres- 
sion and its effect upon the pure and praiseful soul in 
the presence of God! 



LOVE OF POETRY 




N the allegorical picture with this chapter we 
behold the genius of poetry in the form of 
an angelic woman winged for lofty flight, 
with book and pen ready to write her inspira- 
tions, seated upon the airy clouds of imagination, and 
flanked on each side by the supports of art and mu- 
sic. With the star of aesthetic illumination above her 
brow she looks up to the spirit of Shakespeare, the 
patron-master of poetry and the profoundest imper- 
sonation of the divine afflatus. Upon her face is the 
glow of poetic fancy, and from her upward glance we 
catch a glimpse of the inspired soul ready to give ex- 
pression to thoughts that breathe and words that burn. 
Bailey says : 

Poetry is itself a thing of God; 

He made his prophets poets ; and the more 

We feel of poesy do we become 

Like God in love and power. 

Some people have no poetic nature or taste, and hence 
have no love for poetry. They are wholly unimagina- 
tive and practical, or else so stupid and dull in the realm 
of the emotional as to be impervious to the art of musical 
and moving words or thoughts which excite intellectual 
pleasure. As Horace says, "The poet is born, not 
made," and what is true of the poet himself is true of 
the lover of poetry. Perhaps there are few, compara- 
(360) 




Love of Poetry. 



Love of Poetry 363 

tively, who have within them the poetic vein, but there 
are many who appreciate the divine art when they hear 
or read its productions. Some who know nothing of 
verse or versification have the poetic spirit and are 
moved by poetic thought; for, after all, while poetry is 
technically defined as the art of addressing the feelings 
and the imagination through musical, passionate, and 
inspiriting language, it is actually the genius for catch- 
ing the sublime and beautiful, whether expressed in 
words or seen in fact or conceived in imagination. 
Each varied form of poetry delights us, whether dra- 
matic, heroic, or lyric; for poetry is an interpretative 
power which so deals with all its subjects as to stir with- 
in us a deep, fresh, and intimate sense of the things it 
treats of and of our relation to them. Poetry is an art, 
and as Johnson says, its "essence is invention; such in- 
vention as, by producing something unexpected, sur- 
prises and delights. " With or without poetic form, 
poetry, to be poetry at all, must have a poetical subject 
developed by a poetic spirit. Mere versification is not 
poetry. 

The lover of poetry finds it wherever it exists — in 
nature, art, life, or books. He sees it especially in na- 
ture and hears its voices and feels its thrill in every 
object of creation. There is poetry in the Corinthian 
pillar, the Roman arch, the Greek portico, the Gothic 
window, the beautiful home, and the cot in the vale. 
There is poetry in a heroic struggle, a limpid tear, a 
pathetic glance, a baby's laughter, hoary age, and 
saintly death. To the poet and the lover of poetry there 
is something for his imagination, invention, and delight 
in almost everything; even the terrors of hell itself may 
by him be turned into the measure of an awful drama. 
The sources and resources of the poet's spirit are almost 



364 The Masterwheel 

infinite; there are none who can approach so near to 
heaven or reach so close to hell. There is nothing so 
transcendently joyous and delightful, or so profoundly 
woeful and miserable, as the moods of poetic fancy ; and 
it is seldom, if ever, the poet is found except on the house 
top or in the cellar. 

The lover of poetry finds his great delight in the 
works of the poet, and he generally keeps a scrapbook 
for all the finer selections clipped from current literature. 
Nothing charms him more than the reading of a fine 
poem. His memory is stored with a thousand passages 
of the finer thought and sentiment of the best writers. 
What a varied and beautiful world of authors he may 
live in and pick his choice of flowers and fruits that 
bloom so fragrantly and hang so richly upon many a 
tree of fancy, feeling, or philosophy ! One could live a 
lifetime in the garden of Shakespeare and never ex- 
haust its floral and fruitful glories of song and poesy. 
It is more like the Bible than any other book, and next 
to it the most universally read and quoted. Mention 
could be made of the masterpieces of Milton, Dante, By- 
ron, Browning, Pope, Moore, Burns, Scott, Tennyson, 
Whittier, Longfellow, Bryant, Shelley, Pollok, and a 
long list of lesser lights who have illumined the pages of 
literature with their immortal productions. A poetic 
library would be a considerable collection of volumes, 
the most beautiful and pure of all the literature of the 
world, and, as a rule, the least tinctured with immorality 
and infidelity. With all the faults which Shakespeare 
found necessary to the rendition of many of his charac- 
ters, he is ever true to the gospel; and the gospel in 
Shakespeare would form the subject of many a profitable 
discourse. The best poetry breathes the moral and Chris- 
tian spirit ; moral science finds in verse one of its safest 



Love of Poetry 365 

and sweetest repositories. All the beauties and glories 
of nature, all the virtues and graces of life have found 
their purest, loftiest, and most refined expression in 
poetry. 

Nearly all great poets have been the defenders of lib- 
erty and the promoters of lofty living and high citizen- 
ship. Rarely ever did a great poet living like Dryden 
under the glow and impulse of Christianity lend his 
pen to the help of tyranny and superstition; and even 
under the shadow of heathen darkness the poet had 
something of the prophetic spirit and supernatural light 
that pointed toward a brighter and a better life. The 
patriotic, the heroic, and the saintly have ever been the 
poet's inspired themes. From Homer and Virgil down 
to the present day, national enthusiasm, heroism, and 
religion have mingled in the stately epic. Like Miriam, 
whose immortal song celebrated the glorious triumph of 
Jehovah and Israel over the Egyptians, the first poets 
were panegyrists of heroes and national triumphs; and 
hence civilization has in all ages been largely indebted to 
the poets for its progress. Bailey says, "Poets are all 
who love great truths and tell them;" and even when 
every other mouth was dumb, it was the inspired prophet 
and poet that spake. "Poetry," says Chapin, "is the 
utterance of the truth." He says further : "The true poet 
is very near the oracle." Certain it is that no star has 
ever shone brighter into the dark night of slavery or 
done more to brighten history's page than this luminary. 

The Bible is largely a book of poetry; the strains of 
David's harp and the flights of Isaiah's inspiration should 
never cease to inspire the Christian's heart. If, as 
Goethe says, "modern poets put a great deal of water in 
their ink," we must cling to the energy and power of 
the old masters. "Poetry," says Wordsworth, "is the 



366 The Masterwheel 

breath and finer spirit of all knowledge ; it is the impas- 
sioned expression of all science;" and another says, 
"Poetry is the religion of literature." I would rather 
be poor and free and not so learned, if the poetic in- 
stinct of my nature must be extinguished by the slavery 
of avarice or a selfish practicality or a scientific frigid- 
ity, that curbs imagination, suppresses passion, and 
rules out sentiment. Mackay draws a picture which 
illustrates this point when he says of the poor man and 
Cleon : 

Cleon hath a million acres, ne'er a one have I ; 
Cleon dwelleth in a palace, in a cottage I ; 
Cleon hath a dozen fortunes, not a penny I ; 
Yet the poorer of the twain is Cleon, and not I. 

Cleon, true, possesseth acres, but the landscape I ; 
Half the charms to me it yieldeth money cannot buy ; 
Cleon harbors sloth and dulness — freshening vigor I ; 
He in velvet, I in fustian, richer man am I. 

Cleon is a slave to grandeur, free as thought am I ; 
Cleon fees a score of doctors, need of none have I. 
Wealth-surrounded, care-environed, Cleon fears to die ; 
Death may come, he'll find me ready — happier man am I. 

Cleon sees no charm in nature, in a daisy I ; 

Cleon hears no anthem singing in the sea and sky. 

Nature sings to me forever, earnest listener, I ; 

State for state, with all attendants, who would change ? Not I. 

One of the beauties of poetry is its sententious power 
in fixing truth upon the mind. The eldest and fairest 
offspring of literature, it has been through the imagina- 
tion and affections the most fruitful and effective upon 
the soul. It is axiomatic yet sensational, maximistic 
and yet sentimental, fabulous and yet truthful, imagina- 
tive and yet real, shadow yet substance, nothing yet ex- 



Love of Poetry 367 

istence. Plato said, "Poets utter great and wise things 
which they do not themselves understand;" and Dewart 
calls the poet 

A priest by heaven ordained, 

The poet-seer at Nature's altar stands 

To offer reverent worship for his race ; 

To coin in burning language golden truths, 

Bodied in Nature's hieroglyphic forms ; 

And words the grateful joy and trusting love 

And hope, which thousands feel but cannot speak. 

The poet is interpreter to the soul of nature's silent 
language, never otherwise put in words that can be 
understood. Poetry is painting and sculpture in verse 
— the truth drawn and chiseled upon the mind — as Mil- 
ton painted and Shakespeare sculptured; and it is the 
truth thus put that makes poetry the superior of history, 
philosophy, or any other form of literature. Beecher 
well said : "Poetry is the robe, the royal apparel, in which 
truth asserts its divine origin." Poetry is the truth in 
colors, figures, and feelings, which are employed for 
effect ; but it is always the white-light truth in its essen- 
tials. It is truth clothed in beauty, perfumed with senti- 
ment, warmed by emotion, carved in wisdom, and lighted 
by imagination. 

Since this is poetry, it should be one of the chief ob- 
jects of our love and admiration. It is the love of truth 
in its most attractive, effective, and permanent form — 
the most palatable knowledge delightfully served. Cole- 
ridge says, "Poetry has been to me 'its own exceeding 
great reward ;' . . . it has given me the habit of wishing 
to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and 
surrounds me." Carlyle says, "Poetry is the attempt 
which man makes to render his existence harmonious." 
The effect of poetry upon the mind and heart, the life 



368 The Masterwheel 

and character, is the most refining and exalting of all 
literary studies. Prose, philosophy, cold science, have 
done what they could in dealing with plain, unadorned 
facts and verities in every department of learning and 
life; but it is the poetic genius that reaches up among 
the stars, lays its hand upon the ocean's waves, touches 
the multitudinous forms of creation, delves into the 
secrets of occult forces, walks among the mysteries of 
the inner world of mind and heart, and gives us the key 
to nature's hieroglyphics and mysteries. 

The objection may be urged that some of the poets 
were vile, in many respects, that their habits of life were 
dissolute and that their morals were bad. But this would 
be an objection also in every other form of literature or 
profession of life. Most of the poets (a great major- 
ity of them) were pure and lofty characters, though 
often poor and hapless in the affairs of life ; but bad and 
vicious as some of them were, there was deep down in 
their souls the strain of a noble purpose and of a heroic 
character. They generally loved the truth; and all of 
them — good, bad, or indifferent — have left the truth in 
letters of gold upon the imperishable pages of genius. 
All of them have pointed out the way of life and a way 
to heaven along the most brilliant and vivid pathway of 
virtue and religion. 

All that is true in nature, history, and philosophy, they 
have touched with seraphic fire and a glow that makes 
the dullest subject attractive and instructive. Poetry 
tints the intellect with the feelings and emblazons 
thoughts with the glory of imagination, invades the 
sanctuary of eternity, and not only gets the something 
left in everything, but invents something out of nothing. 
Poetry knows nothing of the axiom ex nihilo nihil fit — 
nothing from nothing comes. It is one of the greatest 



Love of Poetry 369 

of the things man's brain is able to do. To write a great 
poem is infinitely a larger work than to write a great 
book in prose. Not only must the poet possess a vast 
fund of language, but he must with his literary ability 
possess also many of the finest characteristics of the 
artist and the musician. He needs the imaginative 
quality of the former's mind and his ability to see in his 
mental eye the beauties of a picture, as well as the rhyth- 
mic precision of the musician. 

Such a man as Shakespeare, for instance, was literary 
man, painter, composer, playwright, and actor combined 
in one person. Indeed he was a genius of a monumental 
type, and his wonderful works will live throughout the 
ages as productions men may vainly aspire to imitate. 

And now to speak a word concerning the poetry of 
the Bible. The great, grand, old Book contains some 
of the most marvelous poetry ever written. The Psalms 
themselves, if no other of the poetical sections of the 
Bible were considered, would stamp it as sublime. The 
book of Job is another most wonderful poem. No won- 
der we love God's Word since it contains these majestic 
productions inspired in the brains of their creators by 
the greater Creator in heaven. Much as we may love 
other poetry, we should prize the Bible above all, and 
much as we read the masterpieces of Shakespeare, Mil- 
ton, Dante, Tennyson, Homer, Virgil, Browning, and 
the other great poets, we should read the Bible more. 

24 




LOVE OF ART 




IKE poetry and music, art requires an invent- 
ive and interpretative genius full of pathos, 
sentiment, and imagination. As an educator 
or molder of thought and sentiment along 
aesthetic, ethical, or utilitarian lines, the artist falls but 
little below the poet or the musician in importance, ex- 
cept in the fact that his productions are not so common, 
nor so accessible to the masses. He must be mighty in 
productive imagination and perfect in his representation 
of the truth, the beauty, the grandeur, and the purpose 
of his invention. The artist can no more afford to mis- 
represent his subject or fall short of verity in his work 
than the poet who breathes it in words or the musician 
who translates it into notes and sounds. The artist 
must approximate perfection in order to satisfy taste and 
sensibility, as well as to conform to ethics and judgment. 
The prose writer, and even the theologian or philosopher, 
may not be held to so strict account by their critics; but 
the artist is never forgiven for a misrepresentation of 
the true, or a failure to present accurately the spirit of 
his subject. The artist is allowed some license in vary- 
ing from the established rules of his profession, but he 
dares not deviate from truth or nature. 

The love of art arises from our love of the true and 
beautiful in nature reproduced by the skill of the artist. 
(37o) 




Love of Art. 



Love of Art 373 

He gets at art through nature ; we get at nature through 
his art, and by it he leads us to a higher appreciation 
of the true in nature. The man in whom is born the 
genius of art, and who develops it to the greatest per- 
fection, is the master whose inspired imagination re- 
veals to the ordinary mind ideal creations. To be sure, 
when he paints or chisels a horse, a lion, or a man, his 
highest art can only bring out perfect nature, true to 
every lineament and feature of his model; but when he 
enters the realm of fancy, ideality, history, life or char- 
acter, his productions must bring out, as Goethe terms 
it, "the illusion of a higher reality." I had studied for 
years the conception of Christ's crucifixion, but I never 
realized the awfulness of the tragedy until I looked upon 
Munkacsy's picture of the scene upon Calvary. It lifted 
me into a higher apprehension of the suffering of Christ 
and of the great truths related to it than I had ever felt 
before ; and here I reached a deeper reality through the 
artist's ideal of the crucifixion than I had ever attained 
by study and thought. No matter how minute and clear 
our conception by observation or reading of the real or 
historic thing, it is the work of the artist to concentrate 
and bring out, by superior genius, deeper impressions 
and profounder realizations of fact and truth than the 
ordinary mind by sight or study can conceive. The 
master artist sees and feels more than we do; and by his 
exquisite and finished combination of figure and color, 
form and expression, attitude and action he emphasizes 
the truth of his subject so as to impress our minds and 
touch our hearts in a vivid and lasting way. 

Hence we should love art for its higher educative 
power. True art, far more than poetry or music, has 
suffered at the hands of licentiousness, superstition, av- 
arice, and other vices; but withal artists have contrib- 



374 The Masterwheel 

uted mightily to the education and refinement of the 
world. The great galleries of the Louvre, Dresden, 
Florence, the Vatican, and other places are a revelation 
of what the brush and the chisel have done for aesthetic, 
ethical, historic, and ideal thought and culture, along the 
lines of nature, truth, life, and character. Mythology, 
religion, philosophy, history, individual and social char- 
acteristics, national events and peculiarities, touching 
every age and country, are crystallized and enshrined 
in painting and sculpture; and the lover of art, without 
much time or money if he has access to a great gallery, 
can, in thought, travel through ages of the world's his- 
tory and enjoy living with its people long since passed 
from the stage of action. Fortunately the photogra- 
pher's and engraver's arts, aided by the printing press, 
offer valuable opportunities for study to the masses who 
have not the opportunity or means of visiting the world's 
famous art galleries. Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, 
da Vinci, Murillo, Dore, Tintoretto, and a host of other 
artists are thus introduced into our homes, schools, and 
colleges. If therefore we cannot get the full educational 
value of seeing and studying their great originals, we 
can at least enjoy the best reproductions of them. In 
fact, we are living in an age of pictures that are making 
a mighty impression upon the mind and the heart of 
the rising generation ; and the effort should be made to 
bestow as much labor as possible in the reproduction and 
presentation of the works of the masters. The effect of 
a good or bad picture upon the mind and heart of the 
young cannot be estimated. A mother tried to keep her 
boy from going to sea, and wondered why he had such* 
a mania for life on the ocean. The secret was his study 
of a picture which hung over the mantel, and upon which 
the boy had been accustomed to look from his childhood. 



Love of Art 375 

It represented "life on the ocean wave" — a fine vessel 
in full sail. 

The purifying and elevating effect of art is another 
reason for loving and promoting it. Certain forms of 
fine art, however, cannot be said to have a refining and 
beneficent effect upon society. The nude in art, for in- 
stance, may not affect the morals or debase the mind of 
the artist or the lover of art, who studies and appreciates 
it as a perfect and beautiful representation of nature; 
but only "unto the pure are all things pure," and the 
nude in art would certainly not affect purely or be eth- 
ically helpful to the gross and licentious. The great 
mass of people, who have little or none of such spirit, are 
touched with evil by the slightest suggestion in art of 
anything that appeals to licentious tendencies; and the 
purpose of education, either in art or literature, is to 
obscure every suggestion of evil and to inculcate only 
that which is good and pure. Emerson says: "The 
study of art is of high value to the growth of the intel- 
lect, for the law of art is the law of beauty." We may, 
therefore, conclude that the study of art will give us a 
knowledge of the science of beauty. It is certain that 
the sense of chasteness and beauty derived from the 
sight and study of fine art makes an indelible impression 
for good upon the heart and life, and one of the most 
wholesome signs of our times is the general teaching of 
art in our schools and colleges. It would be a great 
blessing if every boy and girl, young man and woman, 
should be required to study certain art subjects with a 
view to aesthetic culture, whether they ever become 
artists or not. Music is now generally taught our chil- 
dren in the public schools, and the study of literature 
includes the finest specimens of poetry; why not insist 
upon the cultivation of the aesthetic faculty by a study of 



376 The Masterwheel 

the rudiments of art? I can conceive no finer or purer 
training of the young mind. 

Another value of art is its enhancement of religion. 
Many of the great masterpieces deal with Christian 
subjects. Christ, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the 
ascension — in fact, the whole history of Christ and his 
apostles, as well as all the sublime events and personages 
of the Old Testament — have been developed on canvas 
or chiseled in marble. One of the mightiest forces of 
Romanism consists in having crystallized its form of 
Christianity in painting, sculpture, and architecture ; and 
the churches of Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, Cologne, 
Paris, and hundreds of other cities are repositories of 
the finest examples of painting and sculpture represent- 
ing images and events which, through the senses, im- 
press upon the mind and heart the history and principles 
of the Christian religion. True, some of it appeals to 
superstition, some of it is made an improper medium of 
worship; but much of it is the handiwork of masters 
whose purpose it was to illustrate the teachings of 
Christ, inspire their fellow-men, and honor God. 

St. Peter's, with its splendor of ecclesiastical archi- 
tecture, its marble and bronze statuary, and its magnifi- 
cent paintings, is the dazzling center of religious art; 
and, despite some erroneous and unspiritual pieces, there 
is an aesthetic and sentimental charm of beauty and 
grandeur, of awe and splendor, of mystery and power 
that wins the admiration of every artist and lover of 
art. 

The religious adoration of art, or any form of wor- 
ship through art, is idolatry; and yet that which em- 
bodies the truth and beauty of religion, properly studied 
and viewed, helps Christianity and enhances spiritual 
life. The Gothic Church, suggested by the arcade of 



Love of Art 377 

forest trees, with its stained-glass windows adorned 
with the colors of the western sky, as though seen 
through the bare and crossing branches of the forest, is 
the most beautiful and impressive form of architecture. 
It promotes reverence for the house of God and contrib- 
utes to the restful and worshipful spirit. Stained-glass 
pictures in the windows, or exquisite carvings or stat- 
uary, suggestive of religion by symbol, sacred places, 
personages, or events, do not hurt but help the pious 
and thoughtful spirit. The same is true of religious 
paintings or sculpture in our homes, whether we can 
afford the fine originals or only good reproductions of 
them in books or pictures. 

Art, like poetry, has been the index of advanced 
thought and civilization in every stage, and has gen- 
erally been on the side of light, liberty, virtue, religion, 
and all that contributes to the good and glory of man- 
kind. Unfortunately, under the patronage of princes 
it has sometimes yielded to the pressure and overwhelm- 
ing influence of power and money in corrupt and declin- 
ing ages. As Ruskin well puts it : "The names of great 
painters are like passing bells. In the name of Velasquez, 
you have sounded the fall of Spain; in the name of 
Titian, that of Venice; in the name of Leonardo, that 
of Milan ; in the name of Raphael, that of Rome. And 
there is a justice in this, for in proportion to the noble- 
ness of the power is the guilt of its use for purposes 
vain or vile; and hitherto the greater the art, the more 
surely has it been used, and used solely, for the decora- 
tion of pride or the provoking of sensuality/' 



LOVE OF NATURE 




HE woman in classic attire, pensively gazing 
upon the scenery that surrounds her, listening 
to the music of the birds and drinking in the 
luxuries of woodland breeze in solitude and 
silence, is the impersonation of the lover of nature. To 
her everything in nature has a meaning and a charm. 
The distant mountain peak, the wooded hill, the verdant 
vale, the rippling stream, the blue sky and starry night, 
storm and sunshine, beast and bird — all speak to her of 
God. Nature is the great volume in which she finds a 
revelation, the oldest testament ; and the happiest be- 
ing in the world is a true lover of nature and nature's 
God. 

This is a beautiful, a grand, a glorious old world. 
Though cursed and marred for man's sake, yet there are 
times and seasons when everything is so charming and 
felicitous to the pure and responsive heart that we feel as 
if we could live here forever — could make it our heaven. 
A delightful spring or summer day, in the midst of fasci- 
nating scenery, blending mountain, hill, and valley, with 
smiling field and verdant tree and rippling stream, 
fanned by healthful breezes and regaled by song of birds, « 
when all nature is vital with energy and radiant with 
glory and the heart is content and happy with itself and 
environments — it is then this world seems like a para- 
(378) 




Love of Nature. 



Love of Nature 381 

disc Everything depends upon the heart within, as we 
see the world without; and anywhere is heaven to the 
unstained conscience and the holy, happy heart. Even 
the tempest and the cyclone, the thunderbolt and the 
lightning flash, the mountain billows of the deep, the 
snow-clad winter that embraces a barren world — all are 
beautiful and sublime to the soul filled with the gran- 
deur and purity of love, to the lofty spirit, serene even 
amid the terrors of nature which reveal the truth that 

God moves in a mysterious way 

His wonders to perform; 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 

And rides upon the storm. 

I have often sat at Warren's Point, near Monteagle, 
on a summer's eve and watched golden Phcebus as he 
rode down the sky in his chariot of fire and sank in 
splendor behind the gilded clouds and the far-off west- 
ern hills. Between the distant blue horizon and where 
I sat lay the verdant plain tessellated with field and for- 
est, that presented a vast mosaic of nature and art, 
flecked here and there with cottages and streams and 
animated with the plowman or the herdsman that 
plodded his homeward way — echoing with evening 
shout and song that told of the peace and plenty of the 
quiet valley. On each side the mountains glowed in 
the mellowed splendor of parting day, lifting their huge 
forms as if to shield the plains between and shadow them 
with their purple glories to soften the approach of night. 
Behind me were the lofty mountain forests, rustled by 
the gentle zephyr that breathed an evening prayer, at- 
tuned by the note of birds, lulled by the drowsy tinkling 
of woodland bells, and varied by the chatter of the katy- 
did and locust. Above me was the blue arch of the 
cloudless dome, with its pale young moon yonder in the 



382 The Masterwheel 

west, and anon the star of the evening that faintly began 
to peep beside the silver crescent above the gloaming. 
A thousand voices from everywhere in concert seemed to 
speak to my soul of heaven, as I looked up through na- 
ture to nature's God. Would heaven be grander and 
more glorious than this scene of earth, and would I ever 
be happier than now? Ah! thought I, yes, this is but 
the faint type set by nature's hand of the glory world; 
and her glimpses and voices are only the faint shadow 
and echo of the antitypical splendors and ecstasy of the 
real paradise out of sight. Nature is only the symbol of 
the supernatural; and to those whose citizenship is in 
the better country nature bristles with ten thousand 
tokens of beauty and life that have their correspondence 
and fulfillment in that city that hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God. 

Nature is God's oldest and newest testament to the 
pure mind and the simple heart. It is God's revelation 
to reason and sensibility, and it is infallible in all its ut- 
terances to the soul. To the sinless spirit it would teach 
God and formulate a rational religion so perfectly and 
purely that a sentient world would be without a skeptic 
or a blasphemer. Religion would be perfectly natural to 
a perfect race, drawn out of external revelation in an- 
swer to the instincts and intuitions of our being. Even 
in a state of sin, nature has afforded her religious creed 
to every people bereft of a better revelation to the lost 
sinner; but natural religion in a sinful state takes all 
the colors and corruptions of our sinful passions and 
blinded reason. Nature knows nothing of sin ; and hence 
nothing of salvation by grace, justification by faith, 
through an atoning Redeemer. She knows only reason 
and law, and her justification stands only in perfect obe- 
dience. She can teach the conscience, but she cannot 



Love of Nature 383 

regenerate it; she can condemn, but not justify; punish, 
but not save. But for sin, nature would have been her 
own heaven, and she would never have known a hell, as 
she would never have known of death temporal or spir- 
itual; but she has no remedy for sin, death, hell, or the 
grave. The religion that saves must be supernatural, 
because sin is subnatural to man's original state ; and in 
the reversal of human nature, sin needed a supernatural 
revelation and a supernatural remedy. 

Nature is Christ's great storehouse of wisdom and 
instruction. He thus exalted nature in our conception 
by continually associating it with our spiritual enlighten- 
ment. He was a perfectly natural Christ, and he never 
violated the nature of things, however infinitely he some- 
times rose above the natural to the supernatural. He 
loved the mountain tops and the seashore, the gardens 
and the cornfields, the flowers and the fruit trees, the 
birds of the air, and the sheep of the pasture, everything 
that the Father had made and fashioned for good accord- 
ing to his divine purpose. He loved little children, the 
closest of all human beings to nature ; and he pitied the 
erring sinner and denounced the hypocritical Pharisee, 
the farthest from it. He drew from the bosom of na- 
ture the lessons and illustrations which adorned and en- 
forced his infallible inspiration and utterance, and he 
made the luminous world the great university of his 
people. He viewed nature as created for man; and as 
one has beautifully said, "In her illuminated lettering he 
used to impress upon man the lesson of divine wisdom ;" 
and the same writer says, "While nature, in its beauty 
and hallowed suggestiveness, was ever present with 
Christ, he showed no trace of ecstasy or mere indolent 
contemplation. He never paused to lay on the colors 
of the scene painter." Christ never overdrew his pic- 



384 The Masterwheel 

tures from nature, nor distorted them with abnormal 
drapery, but left them in their simplicity to teach us 
more by suggestion and inference than by wearisome ex- 
planation. 

It is wonderful the uses he made of nature in the sim- 
plest statement of profoundest truths. The mystery of 
regeneration is solved as far as possible in the likeness 
of the Spirit to the wind which bloweth where it listeth ; 
and the lilies of the field, clothed with more glory than 
Solomon in his regal splendor, taught the lesson of hu- 
mility in their dependence upon God for their beauty and 
fragrance. Providence is vividly seen in God's notice 
of the sparrow's fall, in hearing the young raven's cry, 
and in the counting of the hairs of our head; and a 
magnificent object lesson of the omnipotence of Christ is 
seen upon the billows of the sea, that bore up his foot- 
steps, and in the obedience of the waves and winds at the 
voice of his word. He quickened the energies of his 
disciples by pointing them to the fields white unto the 
harvest; and he drew the character of every form of 
believer in the development of the sown seed upon the 
wayside, the stony, thorny, and good ground of the field. 
How he pictured the wonderful phases of his kingdom 
by parables of the sower, the fish net in the sea, the 
mustard seed, the leaven, the pearl of greatest price, and 
other figures from nature ! and how beautifully he char- 
acterized eternal life by the perennial spring of living 
water in the soul, and by the bread of life which came 
down from heaven! What master touches are these 
through the hand of nature, how inimitable, how ex- 
haustive his analogies, the highest form of his logic! 
How natural he makes the supernatural! and how he 
demonstrates the applicability and analogy of the law 
of the natural to the spiritual world ! Through ilhtstra- 



Love of Nature 385 

tions of divine truth and life by the light of nature, he 
brings down heaven to earth and lifts earth up to heaven, 
as he calls into requisition sun, moon, and star, land and 
sea, valley and mountain, animal and bird, tree and flow- 
er, wind and wave, field and garden, everything to 
make plain beyond controversy a divine and supernat- 
ural revelation. He made no mistake in utterance or 
in argument by natural illustrations; and he who had 
created nature knew that nature never speaks amiss. 

Nature is still, as ever, the thin veil 

Which half conceals and half reveals the face 

And lineaments supernal of our King; 

The modifying medium through which 

His glories are exhibited to man : 

The grand repository where he hides 

His mighty thoughts, to be dug out like diamonds. 

We ought not to worship nature, nor worship God 
through the medium of nature. This would be simply a 
form of idolatry. But we should study God and study 
ourselves in the light of nature, as it illuminates divine 
revelation; and so find in everything we see or feel or 
hear some token of the infinite and the eternal, couched 
in the finite and the temporal. What a reflection upon 
our intelligence and spirituality that we stand daily and 
so move in the midst of a multitude of truths and beau- 
ties, tokens of God's infinite wisdom and goodness, and 
take no notice of nature's monitions and lessons ! The 
sun, moon, and stars shine by night and day in vain to 
millions who never think, by their light and glory, of 
the ineffable God who made them and through them 
manifests his daily and nightly watch care and loving 
kindness. Emerson says: "If the stars shone but once 
in a thousand years, how men would believe and won- 
der." "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the 
2 5 



386 The Masterwheel 

firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day utter- 
eth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge;" 
but, alas ! how few of die millions of earth hear these 
voices of nature, or take notice of what they tell. 

We should love nature, and so love God and his 
Christ, by whom all things were made, and for whom 
all things exist, and by whom all things consist. Nature 
is not God, but the expression of God, and of his divine 
glory. "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord," 
and we may see his glory in the lofty hill and the 
spreading valley, in the majestic tree and the beautiful 
flower, in the fruitage of the orchard and in the golden 
harvest of the field. In the noontide splendor we behold 
the flash of God's eye; and in the silent pomp of noiseless 
night — in the stride of the moon and the march of the 
stars — we behold the steps of God in the garden of the 
shining firmament, where grow the twinkling flowers 
that bud with the symbols of everlasting light and im- 
mortality. The universe is God's vast machine, in the 
intricacy and immensity of whose movement God is not 
only the author but engineer, ever present and immanent 
in the slightest action of the smallest atom; and when- 
ever in nature we behold the phenomena of its manifesta- 
tions, we behold the power and operation of God. In 
the correlation and conservation of forces every variant 
form and fashion of God's vast creation is linked to- 
gether in kindred cooperation; and from the least to 
the greatest object and relation in his boundless universe, 
we behold an inseparable connection of cause and effect 
which goes to make up nature as one solid and glot wis 
unity. Thomson, the poet, beautifully says: 

Each moss, 
Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank 
Important in iV.e plan of Him who framed 



Love of Nature 387 

This scale of beings ; holds a rank which, lost. 
Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap 
Which nature's self would rue. 

There is a general beauty and a universal joy in na- 
ture. The so-called deformities of nature are only appar- 
ent to the isolated view, but when taken with the general 
contour and make-up of God's creations, they only add to 
the variety in harmony with the whole grand unity and 
design of God's perfect plan. The toad seems in con- 
trast with the bird of paradise, and so the barren desert 
with the lofty mountain range; but in the general har- 
mony of the whole with all its parts, and of the parts with 
each other, the glory of nature appears. All mountain 
and no plain, all land and no water, all big and no little, 
all bird and no toad, all beauty and no ugliness, would 
surfeit with monotony, however pleasant ; and hence con- 
trast, as well as variety, helps to intensify and enhance 
our appreciation and delight for the wonderful works 
of God. Taste and sense will tire in the constant sight 
and use of the beautiful and comely without variety, con- 
trast, or change. Hence the toad, the beetle, the lizard, 
in turn with fairer symbols, become styles of jewelry; 
and, in the ceaseless and exhaustless round of fashion, 
modes of dress take on, in turn with simpler and more 
beautiful style, apparently the most ugly and compli- 
cated forms. So music runs from melody to medley, 
without violating harmony; so of art and architecture, 
in the same variation of subjects and styles, until the 
round of taste and sense is satisfied. Hence in every 
aspect and condition of nature there is joy and delight. 
As in the dawning beauty of the morning, or in the 
gloaming splendors of the evening, so in the grandeur 
of the storm cloud, or in the majestic pomp of night, 
the lover of nature finds pleasure. There is grandeur 



388 The Masterwheel 

in the picturesque crag and beauty in the grassy hill, sub- 
limity and magnificence in the boundless desert and 
sweetness in the smiling valley, majesty and awe in the 
turbulent deep and the glory of the sun in the dewdrop, 
dignity in the huge and uncomely elephant and exqui- 
site symmetry and action in the squirrel. 

And this vast, grand nature made by God praises him, 
voicelessly perhaps, but nevertheless in a Te Deum as 
full of glorious harmonies as ever a Mozart or a Bee- 
thoven penned for most fortunate mankind. The sensi- 
tive eye and ear of the poet saw and heard it, and his 
song described it when he said : 

What throbbings of deep joy 
Pulsate through all I see ; from the full bud 
Whose unctuous sheath is glittering in the moon, 
Up through the system of created things, 
E'en to the flowing ranks of seraphim! 

"The system of created things," says the poet, and 
what a vast limitless meaning the phrase possesses! 
Not only does it include man, beast, bird, fish, reptile, and 
the myriad classes of insect life, but all forms of plants 
and flowers, the soil and rocks, the minerals and metals, 
the air we breathe and the water we drink, the heavens 
above and the other worlds than ours that dot them and 
which we call the stars. These things are tangible; 
we see them every day. But what about the life we 
cannot see — the measureless millions of living things 
science calls cell-life. Everything that possesses life is 
made up of uncountable numbers of tiny cells containing 
the germs of existence. Each cell is so small that many ^ 
thousands of them put together are invisible to the naked 
eye and can be seen only by means of a powerful micro- 
scope. Yet, when once seen their purpose and origin 
cannot be mistaken. Your doctor, if you ask him, will 



Love of Nature 389 

tell you that you are composed of these cells, that each 
one is living and doing the work set for it by God in 
keeping you alive, and that you consist of billions of 
them. The thought is almost incredible; it almost 
makes the human brain — that sagacious, quickly-com- 
prehending, almost tireless human brain — reel and re- 
fuse to act. But it is so, nevertheless. We are what 
we are and as God made us. And when we think of 
these things and ponder upon the vastness of nature and 
''the system of created things" we ought to love God 
more. What are we but his creatures? We ought to 
live for him since he has made us. We ought to do 
things for Him since he thus has built us. Wonderful 
are thy works, O Lord, and mighty are the things thou 
hast done. I cannot see how the atheist, the infidel, and 
the agnostic exist. It seems to me that if they only 
would look at the sky, or into the earth, or at their fel- 
low-man, or best of all at a drop of water or the leaf of 
a plant under a microscope they would go away con- 
verted. God's great Nature — the living things, the 
heavens, the everlasting hills — all — are singing their 
grand Te Deum — "To God be all glory, both now and 
forever. Amen." And God is everywhere, listening 
and loving, with Jesus Christ, his Son, who died for 
us, and the Holy Spirit. It is a great, grand, beautiful 
thought, this omnipresence of God. We do not think it 
half enough. 




LOVE OF FLOWERS 




OME one says that "flowers are love's truest 
language." Almost everybody admires 
flowers, and some people love them to excess. 
I know a woman who keeps the beautiful yard 
in front of her house full of the choicest shrubs and 
flowers. She has studied and worked with them until 
she seems possessed of floral idolatry. Frequently she 
dreams of them, wakes from her slumbers, and goes out 
to look after some pet shrub or blossom as if it were a 
favorite child. To her some of them seem to imper- 
sonate a spirit, and she communes with them as with 
angels. She is like Undine, who "fancied a paradise for 
the spirits of departed flowers," to which Richter replied: 
"They go not into paradise, but into the middle state; 
the souls of lilies enter into maiden's foreheads, those 
of hyacinths and forget-me-nots dwell in their eyes, and 
those of roses in their lips." 

It was part of God's great plan in creation to adorn 
the world with flowers. These flowers in their beauty 
painted in ten thousand forms and colors were scattered 
everywhere for man's delight and pleasure, ever to re- 
mind him of God's loving-kindness. How happy they 
make us, whether they bank themselves in variegated 
beauty upon the bosom of the spreading prairie, smile at 
us through the leafy forests, or perfume our way through 
gardens and fields ! 
(390) 




l\J W Ul o. 



Love or Flowers 393 

In the growth of a flower, nature shows the handi- 
work of God as surely as in the making of a world. The 
creations of artisans and artists may deceive one of our 
senses, but never all of them. The art of Raphael or 
Phidias could only imitate, never approximate, a natural 
flower. How insignificant the genius of man beside the 
touch of the living God in the greatest or minutest act 
of creation ! 

From barren desert to snow-capped mountains, they 
blossom with the perfume of praise and inspire us to 
worship. They speak to every eye and heart a universal 
language that soothes the stricken soul, brightens the 
smiles of joy, removes the shades of doubt, charms away 
the power of evil, and lifts the soul to God. Beautifully 
does Horace Smith, in his hymn to flowers, say: 

Your voiceless lips, O flowers ! are living preachers, 

Each cup a pulpit, each leaf a book ; 
Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers, 

From loneliest nook. 

Floral apostles ! that in dewy splendor 

"Weep without woe and blush without a crime," 

O, may I deeply learn, and ne'er surrender 
Your love sublime. 

Flowers have ever been used for the delicate expres- 
sion of our truest sympathies and our tenderest affec- 
tions. It has been well said: 'Their beauty and their 
fleetingness serve to make them the most fitting symbols 
of those delicate sentiments for which language itself 
seems almost too gross a medium." With Longfellow 
shall we say the flowers are 

Brilliant hopes, all woven in gorgeous tissues, 

Flaming gayly in the golden light ; 
Large desires, with most uncertain issues, 

Tender wishes, blossoming at night. 



394 The Masterwheel 

The love of flowers is universal. Wherever people 
live and homes are made, there flowers are found, 
whether it be in lowly cottage or lofty palace. A row 
of buttercups, a geranium in an old flower box, a bed 
of hyacinths, or a cluster of morning-glories over the 
porch, is as surely an evidence of this refinement of 
taste as are the well-laid-out grounds, adorned with costly 
shrubs and trees of foreign growth and rare exotics in 
well-kept horticultural gardens. How aptly says Mrs. 
Childs: "The heart of all mankind blesses flowers. 
They are wreathed around the cradle, the marriage altar, 
and the tomb. The Persian of the Far East delights 
in their perfume, and writes his love in nosegays; while 
the Indian child of the West claps his hands with glee 
as he gathers the abundant blossoms, the illuminated 
scriptures of the prairies. The cupid of the ancient 
Hindoos tipped his arrow with flowers, and orange blos- 
soms are a bridal crown with us, a nation of yesterday." 

Architecture is indebted to the world of flowers for the 
patterns from which are created its most beautiful and 
elaborate designs. Much of our decorative art is an 
embellishment of flowers; and modern painting and 
sculpture are exquisite with their ornamentation. The 
Corinthian column, the final evolution of all columnar 
beauty, is incomplete without their crowning. Flowers 
are used in most great public celebrations to give aes- 
thetic expression and inspiration to the occasion. They 
lend an added charm to church services; for, as Beecher 
says, "Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever 
made and forgot to put a soul in." 

Variety is a wonder of the floral world. A single, 
flower may be a marvel of beauty in itself, and may 
have a rich variety of its kind as is seen among chrys- 
anthemums, roses, and lilies ; but as we traverse garden 



Love of Flowers 395 

and field we find that God has sought to increase the 
delight and happiness of man by the multitude of dif- 
ferent species. Nowhere in nature is monotony, the 
dead line of sameness, but the richest profusion of un- 
ending variety is found in the floral kingdom. God 
might have made all flowers alike, none but roses, and 
though ever so beautiful they would not have satisfied; 
but he chose, in conformity with the laws of all his crea- 
tion, to multiply flora into thousands of genera and spe- 
cies. 

As to the value of flowers in religious teaching, Mrs. 
Sigourney beautifully says : 

The sickliest leaf, 
The feeblest efflorescence of the moss, 
That drinks thy dew, reproves our unbelief. 
The frail field-lily, which no florist's eye 
Regards, doth win a garniture from thee 
To kings denied. So while to dust we bow, 
Needy and poor, O bid us learn the love 
Graved on the lily's leaf, as fair and clear 
As on yon disk of fire — to trust in thee. 

The coming of the flowers from the grave of winter 
reminds us of the resurrection; and this, doubtless, is 
one of the lessons which God designed that we should 
learn from this most beautiful book of nature. 

Flowers teach us other ethical truths and religious 
lessons. The crushed flower breathes forth a sweeter 
perfume, and in this is the emblem of what the Chris- 
tian's life should be when broken under the heavy hand 
of affliction or persecution. Again there are flowers 
which emit never so sweet a fragrance as just before 
the coming storm; the holy heart should be more fra- 
grant with the odor of Christian graces when the storms 
of life approach. The common cotton plant and the 
plain old sunflower, whose blossoms ever look to the 



396 The Masterwheel 

sun at its rising and, bending, follow it all day long, 
teach us that we should be faithful to our friends and 
follow with fidelity the Sun of Righteousness. 

Will there be any flowers in heaven? Far above the 
century plant of this mortal sphere, somewhere grows 
the amaranth, the symbol of immortality; and whether 
or not flowers such as we now know shall grow upon the 
fields of paradise, we do know that there must be celes- 
tial blossoms in the new heavens and the new earth. 
For when this old world is purified and renewed, and, 
as in God's word promised, made the fit abode of the 
sons of righteousness, then will it blossom again with 
the flowers that have not been seen on earth since Eden 
ceased to bloom. I love that old hymn of Watts's begin- 
ning: 

There everlasting spring abides, 
And never-fading flowers ; 

Death, like a narrow sea, divides 
That heavenly land from ours. 

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, 

Stand dressed in living green ; 
So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 

While Jordan rolled between. 

Whether there will be any flowers or not, the host of 
the redeemed will blossom upon the fields of Paradise 
and fill heaven with praise. Millions of children that 
only budded in the gardens of earth have been trans- 
planted to the gardens of glory to bloom with amaran- 
thine beauty forever ; and there 

Full many a flower, born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air, 

will open in all the full-blown beauty and sweetness of 
the celestial atmosphere. 



His own iniquities shall take the -wicked. — Proverbs v. 32. 

(397) 



PART IV. 

VICIOUS LOVE 



Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar -with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace. 

— Alexander Pope, "Essay on Man. 



LOVE OF SELF 




EFORE us is the picture of a vain woman, 
studying in her mirror the art of personal 
attraction and of fashionable display, primp- 
ing and posing, trying every form of attitude 
and expression, both for effect upon others and for the 
gratification of her personal pride. She often dresses so 
as to expose most fascinatingly her personal charms, 
and it seems that her highest ambition is to win admira- 
tion. She is but a type of the many forms of self-love 
which cause us to forget God and become unmindful of 
our fellow-men. 

Love of self was the original sin which caused Adam 
and Eve to want for themselves the privilege of being 
as the gods. It led to presuming unbelief, rebellion, lust, 
and lies, and was the father of every other sin which 
has cursed the human family. This is "the sin of the 
world" — the radical sin — from the guilt and penalty of 
which Christ came to save. 

Self-love is the quintessence of that deadly egotism — 
the big I and little you — which is the source of most 
of the alienations and strifes in the human family. It 
is amusing to see a typical egotist walking upon the 
stilts of his self-esteem, unconscious of the little world 
around him, all of which is, besides himself, of little im- 
portance. The self-centered are often the best-satis- 
fied people in the world because they do not suffer by 
(400) 




Love of Self. 



Love of Self 403 

the disaffection of others. To them there's no one of 
sufficient importance the loss of whose esteem is a mat- 
ter of deep concern. Too high to be hit and too big 
to be hurt, they are hardly conscious of opposition or 
persecution, of insult or offense. They never take a 
hint, because they imagine a thrust at their dignity 
could never have been meant ; and they never see a 
point against themselves in sarcasm or irony. To laugh 
at such a conceited one is asinine; and to avoid him is 
to compliment him — he thinks — with wholesome respect. 
If conscious of contempt at all, the fact is attributed to 
envy ; and if praise is accorded, it is taken as a matter of 
course. The typical egotist thinks the world was made 
for him and his ; and upon all occasions he rises to show 
you his longitude and latitude whose immensity excludes 
the possible importance of anything else. If he ever 
compliments you at all, it is in condescension for what 
you accord to him ; and your best and noblest deeds and 
wisest words are too small for his telescope. His big- 
gest sins are molehills ; your smallest foibles, mountains. 
If possible to offend him at all, it is by squarely sitting 
down upon him; and even then you only inflate with 
rage the gas bag of his ponderous dignity. 

Sometimes egotism presents quite a different charac- 
teristic. It may be extremely sensitive and shrinking, 
but always exacting in its overestimate of itself. It has 
not the courage of thick-skinned conceit to always push 
itself forward, as in the first case; but its thin-skinned 
sensitiveness is quite as much in evidence of its exist- 
ence. This form of selfishness is constantly sitting on 
the back seat and wondering why it is not called upon ; 
and since it is seldom called upon, it is continually re- 
solving to take revenge upon the unappreciative organ- 
ization by quitting the whole thing. It is always going 



404 The Masterwheel 

to retire, and often it does retire, only to writhe in ago- 
nies because it did. Sometimes this personified selfish- 
ness won't speak to you, and you do not know the reason. 
You may find upon investigation that you stepped upon 
its toes at some time when you did not know it was there. 
This form of egotism always has the sore head, while 
the other always has the big head, and of the two it is 
hard to tell which is worse. 

Self-love sometimes accompanies fine abilities and ac- 
complishments, and then we have the sneering cynic 
who is so skilled in wisdom and so dilettante in taste that 
nothing, however good and useful, is esteemed w T orthy 
of the respect of this hypercritical crank. Occasionally 
religious people are affected by this malady and in such 
cases it manifests itself in the self-righteous assumption, 
"I am holier than thou," as evidenced by the prayer of 
the Pharisee, "I thank thee that I am not as other men 
are." 

The love of self takes a thousand forms in the social, 
business, and other relations of life. ''Take care of 
yourself and let others do the same," is not only the 
monopolist's motto, but the plan upon which most men 
work even when in apparent cooperation. It was because 
of his foreknowledge of the growth of self-love that God 
promulgated his second great commandment, "Love thy 
neighbor as thyself." To follow this law and practically 
apply it in our everyday lives is a difficult task, but the 
only way to win our fight against the flesh and the devil. 

Christ was the perfect model of unselfishness. The 
only self he knew was self-denial and self-sacrifice, that 
with himself he might lift us to glory. To save us he 
offered himself — he suffered and died that we might 
live again. He owned the universe, but he became poor 
for our sakes. He proved that subordination of self 



Love of Self 405 

to God and sacrifice of self for men is to win the greatest 
triumph of life and glory. He loved himself only in 
the sense of self-consecration to the best ends of life, 
and all he did was to glorify his Father and do good 
to men. It was Napoleon's opinion that Christ was 
more than human because in no act was he ever selfish. 
The man and woman who most nearly approach this 
characteristic of Christ are they who plant the fields of 
earth with hope and, like their great Exemplar, sow 
in tears and yet shall they reap in joy. There is not a 
crown in heaven nor a star of glory promised for a 
selfish life. 

There is a phase of self-love which is perfectly right. 
In the sense of self-respect and self-preservation for 
our own and other's good, and for the glory of God, the 
love of self is a primary obligation. When we come to 
remember that we are not our own, that we have been 
bought with a price, we have the true conception of our 
origin and value, and of our duty not only to take good 
care of God's property but to make the best use of it. 
We are God's creatures and servants ; and while we are 
endowed with liberty and self-determining faculties, 
which crown us with the glory of freewill agents, yet 
for this very reason we are to view ourselves subordi- 
nate and responsible to God. 

In all the literature of the world, and of the ages, self- 
love falls under the condemnation of those who write 
or speak — even among men and women afflicted by the 
sin themselves. Every other form of sin or vice has 
found some vile advocate to flatter or condone it in some 
aspect or phase of its character; but all agree that self- 
love is a sin. The heathen and the Christian, the simple 
scholar and great philosopher, agree on this subject. 




LOVE OF PLEASURE 




N the treatment of this subject, we must dis- 
tinguish between happiness and pleasure. 
These two words may be technically synony- 
a mous in general definition, but specifically 
they are wholly different. Happiness implies bliss, fe- 
licity, blessedness, arising from something good which 
creates an agreeable feeling or condition in the soul that 
has something permanent for its basis. True such hap- 
piness is inseparable from pleasure; but there can be 
pleasure without happiness. Pleasure is the gratifica- 
tion of the senses. It may be mental or, through the 
heart, touch the realm of the spiritual ; but it may also be 
merely sensual or even devilish, in which there can be 
no real felicity or lasting blessedness. Pleasure can 
give us agreeable sensations and emotions in evil as in 
good; but happiness finds its pleasure in that which is 
legitimate and permanent; and hence the discussion be- 
fore us involves the subject of pleasure from whatever 
source derived. A man may be happy in present hard- 
ship or misfortune, in view of anticipated good; but 
pleasure is never found except in the absence or forget- 
fulness of that which pains the body or the mind. As 
a writer has well said: "Pleasure can be supported by 
illusion, but happiness rests upon the truth." 

The love of pleasure is natural and proper. The 
great difficulty lies in pushing our legitimate pleasures 
(406) 




Love of Pleasure. 



Love of Pleasure 409 

too far, and in taking pleasure in that which is sinful. 
True pleasure in moderation is the right and duty of 
every human being, to the extent of his ability and 
means to enjoy; but excess in a pleasure harmless in 
itself becomes a sin, and may be followed by pain the 
same as in the case of pleasures which are sinful in fact. 
It is a proper pleasure to walk or talk, but you may 
w r alk or talk too much for your health or your reputa- 
tion. There is delight in reading, but even this, when 
carried to excess, becomes a detriment to heart, mind, 
and bodily vigor. Sometimes we go hunting or fishing, 
but we do not want to hunt and fish all the time. It 
is a pleasure to eat and drink, but to eat and drink im- 
moderately brings on dyspepsia and misery. "Good 
company and conversation are delightful for a season ; 
but, like every other good thing, they must have inter- 
mission, to keep up the pleasure. There is a time and 
place for everything; and, in the varied and multiplied 
work of life, duty and pleasure must have their appro- 
priate seasons and their proportionate allotment of time 
in order to make the one profitable and the other en- 
joyable. 

Especially should children and young people be taught 
this lesson in order to fit themselves for the duties and 
pleasures of life in their appropriate and proportionate 
relation. I have often watched young people who had 
nothing to do but to hunt company and have a good 
time; and the consequences were always mischievous 
and hurtful. They are almost certain to get tired of 
or fall out with each other or else in order to keep up 
their interest join in some devilment. As Richter 
says: "Pleasure soon exhausts us and itself also." 

In the organ of the soul there is no more discordant 
key under the subtle touch of the Devil than that of 



410 The Masterwheel 

pleasure. He has aimed at nothing so artfully as that 
one desire. The saloon, the gambling hell, the lewd 
house, the race course, the circus, the ballroom, the 
club, the theater, the pool table — all these resorts and 
places of vice have been established for the gratification 
of pleasure; and in every land they are the resort of 
unnumbered hosts. Millions of money are invested in 
these schemes of pleasure for the temptation of the weak 
and the gratification of the vicious; and millions more 
are wasted upon them by such pleasure lovers. Not one 
of them is run by a true Christian, and never in one of 
them was there a convert to Christianity. Occasion- 
ally we hear some play advertised in the name of moral- 
ity or religion ; and yet the players rarely make any pre- 
tension to religion, and usually none to morality — han- 
dling sacred things with profane hands and polluted lips, 
assisting their master, the Devil, to make the playhouse 
respectable and profitable. Thousands of people, some 
of them good people, too, are crazed with a mania for 
the pleasure and entertainment of the stage ; and, judging 
the tree by its fruit, there is nothing to-day so detri- 
mental to Christian piety and spirituality, nor to church 
prosperity, as the theater. Theater-going, while not 
the worst form of entertainment sought by the lover of 
pleasure, is nevertheless the most distracting to the reli- 
gious spirit and detracts most from church life and use- 
fulness, because most general and respectable, most fas- 
cinating and alluring. To be sure, its plays are often 
the production of genius rendered as works of art; but 
there is something in the moral atmosphere of the stage, 
in the overdrawn rendition of fact, in the hypocritical 
personification of character, and in the fascination for 
merely dramatic effect, that kills piety, hurts purity, per- 
verts the imagination, corrupts the emotions, and de- 



Love of Pleasure 411 

stroys practical views of life. It might not be so bad 
if all plays were of a high moral tone and intellectual 
order and played by those whose character and sym- 
pathy corresponded with the play; but the theater will 
have to go out of business when it takes the place of 
the lecture platform or the pulpit. For the satisfac- 
tion of the pleasure seeker and lover, and for the sake 
of pay, the playhouse mixes the impure and base with 
the moral and high so as to keep its patronage; 
and in general the theater is just what it always was 
to satisfy the demand of public sentiment. 

The worst part of pleasure-seeking is that it leaves be- 
hind its sting. If you dive to the bottom of pleasure, 
instead of pearls you will bring up mud. It has been 
well said, ''Pleasure's couch is virtue's grave;" and an- 
other has said, "Pleasure may be called the short cut to 
the tomb, as it shortens time, which is the way." Byron 
says : "There is no sterner moralist than pleasure." The 
price of pleasure is usually laid down in the coin of pain, 
and for it millions have sacrificed everything. To grat- 
ify their appetite for drink annually a mighty army 
marches into the grave — as vast as Napoleon's army 
which perished in the snows of Russia. "Pleasure and 
sorrow are inseparably joined in wedlock, and their 
offspring is death." Few selfish seekers after pleasure 
have found it at all, and none have found it lasting. 

All with Burns may say : 

Pleasures are like poppies spread ; 
You seize the flower, its bloom is dead. 

But you ask, "Shall we not have pleasures, and shall 
we not have them according to our tastes and inclina- 
tions?" Certainly, we would debar no man from legiti- 
mate pleasure ; and it is true that every man shall be 
left to judge what is legitimate for himself. We can 



412 The Masterwheel 

only advise in the light of experience and reason. One 
man enjoys his drinks and frequents the saloon, but this 
is not sufficient argument for us to encourage the use 
of strong drink. Observation and reason teach us the 
awful result of persistence in such a course; and God 
makes us our brother's keeper to warn him against the 
dangers of such pleasure. Whatever hurts piety and 
purity; whatever destroys character and manhood; 
whatever makes life unhappy in this world and robs life 
of the world to come; whatever mars the sweetness of 
home and endangers health, business, and industry, 
however fascinating and pleasant to our taste, appetites, 
and passions, should be abhorred. We can neither pre- 
scribe nor proscribe any means of pleasure, but we can 
point to the effect of such pleasures and admonish men 
to avoid them. There are thousands of pleasures legit- 
imate if indulged in in moderation. There are good 
books to read, indoor games and outdoor sports, there 
are social gatherings and good company ; there are trav- 
el and change of scenery ; there are lectures and concerts 
— a thousand rational and harmless pleasures which we 
may love without injury and enjoy without surfeit. It 
is undoubtedly true, as Young puts it: 

Death treads in Pleasure's footsteps round the world, 
When Pleasure treads the path which Reason shuns. 
A good rule by which to govern the love of pleasure is 
to follow those things which develop the body and elevate 
the mind and purify the soul. Christ, who made the 
sacrifice of himself to save us, "pleased not himself," 
and we should find pleasure in trying to please him. 
Thousands of Christians are trying to please themselves' 
instead of Christ, their great Exemplar, of whom it was 
said, "He pleased not himself;" but there never was a 
Christian who found genuine happiness in self -in- 



Love of Pleasure 413 

diligence of any sort. The selfish pleasures of a half- 
hearted Christian fall upon the soul as dainties do upon 
the dyspeptic's stomach. The only people who have any 
joy in the ' 'pleasures of sin for a season" are those who 
leave out God altogether. Serving two masters is the 
most galling bondage. There are so-called Christians 
who persuade themselves that certain pleasures are per- 
fectly consistent with purity, piety, and usefulness, be- 
cause their consciences have been whipped into line with 
their wishes. Conscience is a creature of education, and 
no Christian can afford to follow a conscience trained by 
his own sensual desires. There is but one standard of 
conscience and that is the Bible rightly interpreted and 
spiritually followed; and the Bible-guided Christian is 
not likely to follow the pleasures that will offend his fel- 
low-man or his God. It is the Christian's duty to avoid 
every pleasure upon which the word "doubtful" is writ- 
ten, and certainly those pleasures which are known to be 
wrong. He should abstain "from the very appearance 
of evil," and certainly from evil itself. There are some 
pleasures which you might enjoy without hurt to you, 
that would hurt others by your example; and we are 
commanded not to destroy, by the abuse of our liberty, 
the brother for whom Christ died. 

Finally, let us enjoy in moderation all the good things 
which God hath given us; and, that the young be not 
led into temptation, let us provide them with every means 
-of innocent amusement and harmless pleasure. 



LOVE OF THE WORLD 




HE accompanying picture speaks for itself. 
Love of the world is personified in the gay 
woman that uses it as the arena in which to 
dance or frolic away her life — her motto be- 
ing, "While we live let us live" — forgetting that "sic 
transit gloria mundi" Beneath the great load of the world 
is the sordid man whose back is nearly broken by trying 
to carry too much on it for purposes of gain or ambi- 
tion. Upon him another ambitious one is climbing. 
On one side is seen a man and on the other a woman, 
each grasping for a great armful of all the world can be- 
stow of gain or pleasure ; yet another is peeping over the 
horizon to see how the others are doing. In the back- 
ground below is Satan prompting the actors in this 
silly drama, and urging them to take in all of the world 
they can hold. 

We now come to treat of the world in the sense of 
its affairs as distinguished from heaven, the concerns 
of this life as distinguished from that which is to come, 
of man's absorption in secular affairs to the exclusion 
of the sacred, and of the world under the sway of 
Satan as distinguished from the kingdom and right- 
eousness of God. Worldliness, which is the predom- 
inant passion for the good things of this life, for earthly 
gain and temporal enjoyment — covetousness, ambition,, 
(4 T 4) 




Love oi tne world. 



Love of the World 417 

pride, pleasure in the affairs of earth — this is the sub- 
ject. Jesus Christ comprehended my theme when he 
said that we should love not the world, neither the things 
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the 
love of the Father is not in him. 

It is essential here to get a clear distinction between 
the separate kingdoms of God and Satan, in order to 
understand fully the scope of our subject. True, there 
was a time when the Devil had control of pretty much 
all the earth ; and he had the effrontery to offer its king- 
doms and glory to God's Son if the Christ would fall 
down and worship him. Satan did not own a foot of it 
by right, and Jesus Christ came to restore it to its right- 
ful owner. While the Devil's rule is weakened and his 
empire more circumscribed since the coming of Christ, 
yet the love of the world is but another expression for 
following the Devil's lead. The great majority of the 
world is actually against God, and on the devil's side. 
Even our Christian civilization is largely tainted with 
the Devil's touch. Millions profane God's name, lie, 
steal, murder, and perpetrate every other crime in the 
catalogue of violence as they did thousands of years ago. 
In politics, business, and society, Satan largely rules: 
and he is still the impersonation of the "mammon of 
unrighteousness," the god of this world, whom most 
people worship. He is the source and inspiration of all 
the pride, vanity, and extravagance of fashion, at whose 
shrine many women bow with slavish idolatry; and 
there is not a trick in trade, a fraudulent device in busi- 
ness, a rascally scheme in politics, not a questionable 
social maxim, of which he is not the author. He pre- 
sides supreme over every distillery, saloon, gambling 
hell, brothel, race course, or other resort that fosters 

vice and crime. He controls most forms of worldly 

27 



418 The Masterwheel 

amusement. His spirit rules in the management of 
most railroads, street cars, and other public businesses 
which violate the Sabbath and rob men of their rest and 
opportunity to worship. As a "thing of evil," he perch- 
es over the door of every carnal mind; he is the relent- 
less enemy of good; he is the author of every form of 
worldliness made attractive to human nature, and fash- 
ionable and popular worldliness is his chief instrumen- 
tality with which to defeat righteousness. Hence Christ 
warns us not to love the world, nor the things of the 
world. 

Though it perhaps could not be said that anybody 
loves the devil or is his friend, he who loves the world 
is on the side of the Devil and against God, for Jesus says, 
"Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity 
with God?" and again, "He that is not with me is 
against me; and he that gathereth not with me scatter- 
eth abroad." It is impossible at the same time to be 
worldly-minded and spiritual. 

Worldliness is so hollow, transient, and unsatisfac- 
tory that it is strange it has such a vast following. I 
suppose that every worldling, in the end, could utter 
the words of a poet who wrote his experience when he 
said: 

The world with stones instead of bread 

Our hungry souls has often fed; 

It promised health — in one short hour 

Perished the fair but fragile flower ; 

It promised riches — in a day 

They made them wings and flew away; 

It promised friends — all sought their own, 

And left my widowed heart alone. 

Above everything, the world promises pleasure; but 
as another has said: "The pleasures of the world, unlike 



Love of the World 419 

the waters of the Nile, leave no germs of beauty and 
fertility to bud and blossom and cheer . the heart of 
man when they are gone; on the contrary, they are like 
those streams polluted by the washings of poisonous 
minerals, depositing the seeds of disease and destroying 
all vegetation along their way. The whole world 
gained profits a man nothing, if he loses his own soul; 
and yet millions sell their souls for an infinitesimal part 
of its offering. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of 
pottage; Judas sold his Saviour for thirty pieces of 
silver ; Lot's wife paid the forfeit of her life by one back- 
ward look. The Bible records the ruin of Achan, 
Hainan, Simon, Demas, Absalom, and a host of others 
while grasping after the world's gifts." 

The worldling often scorns admonitions and denounces 
the narrowness and sanctimoniousness of prudent Chris- 
tians who advise the more perfect and happy way of 
life, but his final experience always confirms the wisdom 
and establishes the prophecy of his early monitors. The 
accumulation of wealth, the surfeit of ambition, the in- 
dulgence of pride, appetite, and passion, the fullest grat- 
ification of lust and pleasure, the highest honors 
achieved by worldly hopes and aspirations, tell the same 
tale, and admit the truth at last that they never finally 
satisfy a single soul. The biting cares of business, the 
anxious greed for gain, the stings of conscience, the 
decay of virtue, the decline of health, the depletion of 
manhood, the thorns of ingratitude and disappointment, 
the blight of hope, the wretchedness of discontent, the 
consciousness that a life of possible usefulness has been 
thrown away, the awful fact that the years have passed 
like a dream in the unconscious hardening of the heart 
and the settling down of the soul to a deadly indiffer- 
ence to things eternal — all this is the price paid for the 



420 The Masterwheel 

love of the world. Truly said Young: 'The world is a 
title-page without contents." How few are like Crates, 
who threw his gold into the sea and said : "I will destroy 
thee, lest thou destroy me!" In our struggle with the 
world, we must realize that it is a deadly encounter and 
one in which we shall be justified for acting in self-de- 
fense. The man who does not destroy the love of the 
world will himself be destroyed by it. I was once at 
the deathbed of a man of great wealth, who had lived a 
reasonably correct life except that he had made the 
things of this world his god. I heard him exclaim: "I 
would give all I have to live another week." Pitiful 
plea, but, alas ! his money could not purchase for him a 
minute's extension of time nor a moment's joy in his 
dying hour, neither a ray of hope for his endless life 
beyond. He had sown to the world, and, as with all 
others, his experience established the truth that "the 
wages of sin is death." 

Ah! how God warns us to use this world and not 
abuse it! and how he commands us not to love it! Its 
glory soon passes away, and we pass away with it. A 
hundred years in the life of an individual is but as yes- 
terday when it is past. The saddest spectacle is to 
look at the old, withered, tottering form of the worldling 
who still clings to the world, after having lost all his 
power to enjoy it. He would go over his life and enjoy 
it again, but he cannot; and the past scenes of pleasure 
and gratification troop before the vision of his memory 
in one long, tantalizing train of specters that mock him 
as they pass in review. Perhaps he still clings to the 
bottle, the last, besotting gratification that the Devil, 
old crafty one, can give him. Avarice, lust, ambition, 
pride, desire, all are yet within ; but the power to feed 
these starvelings of the soul is extinguished. He lives 



Love of the World 421 

only in the past, a past wasted in the vain effort to sat- 
isfy the insatiable thirst of sin still dominant and yet 
incapable of satisfaction. He long since ceased to look 
to the future; and hope, the last, best friend of man, has 
fled. He can do nothing now but, serpentlike, sting him- 
self with the thought of pleasures past, to be had no more 
forever. He dies cursing God and earth and self, be- 
cause in the game of life he has lost all; and into the 
grave his withered body sinks, like his withered soul, 
into an endless hell. Of such a man well did Ralph 
Hoyte sing: 

The world for sale ! Hang out the sign ; 

Call every traveler here to me. 
Who'll buy this brave estate of mine, 

And set this weary spirit free? 
'Tis going ! yes, I mean to fling 

The bauble from my soul away ; 
I'll sell it, whatsoe'er it bring ; 

The World at auction here to-day! 



LOVE OF MONEY 




HIS chapter's illustration represents the miser 
grasping his money bags and with delight 
counting his gold. The god he worships and 
in whom he trusts is the almighty dollar, 
which is ever before him; his only companions are the 
swine, symbols of "selfishness," "stinginess," "covet- 
ousness," "greed," etc. Even the picture on the wall is 
but another evidence of his glutton nature. At his door 
stand Death and the Devil, ready to greet him when he 
has to pass in his checks and give up his dollars. 

"The love of money is the root of all evil!" The 
Bible does not say that money itself is an evil; but it 
does say that the love of it is an evil — the root of evil. 
In other words, the love of money is a source of every 
evil, an original cause of it. 

But how is the love of money the root of all evil? 
First of all, it is covetousness, which is idolatry. This, 
to begin with, is evil enough if it produced no other ; but 
accompanying the making and wrong use of money is a 
train of other evils whose name is legion. A miser, too 
stingy to spend a dollar even upon himself, is guilty not . 
only of avarice, but other and overt acts of evil. He 
heeds not the cry of the poor, the widow, and the 
orphan ; he shuts himself up against the employment of 
his pelf for every business enterprise or beneficence 
(422) 



Love of Money 425 

which blesses the world around him. Like the Dead 
Sea, into which the rains fall and the streams run and 
upon which the sun shines, he receives all and gives out 
nothing ; and, like its waters, so his spirit becomes stag- 
nant. The miser, outside of himself, is afflicted with all 
the negative evils which the exclusive accumulation and 
hoarding of money can produce ; and within himself, he 
becomes a spiritual vacuum in which nothing good can 
live. He is an intellectual and moral microbe consumed 
by a single passion, that blights and withers all his 
other emotions. He has only a gizzard for a heart ; and 
his brain is a machine with a single capacity. He is of 
all men most miserable; for there is vouchsafed to him 
but one pleasure, the gratification of the love of gain, 
which is always beclouded with the fear of loss, and in 
its ultimate analysis is the basest of vices. He exists 
without living, and shrivels with perpetual depletion 
until, when he dies, his hands at last relax their grasp 
upon his money bags, his body goes back to dirt and 
his soul to the Devil. If there were any possibility of 
soul annihilation, the miser would surely reach that 
state; but, however small his mind or bedwarfed his 
spirit, he will occupy a big place in hell, the only abode 
that could give him congenial surroundings, if it were 
not too hot for his freezing littleness. To him heaven 
would be hell, because of its beauty, magnificence, and 
glory, to which he had always been a stranger, and to 
which he would be opposed, because of its costly extrav- 
agance. Like Judas, he would say: "Why all this 
waste ?" 

Not only is this grasping love of money base, but the 
love of it for squandering in the gratification of selfish 
lusts may be equally bad or more vicious. Many lovers 
of money care nothing for its hoarding, but use it to 



426 The Masterwheel 

foster their pride and ambition, or else to indulge their 
fleshly appetites. Hence again, it is demonstrated that 
the love of money becomes the root of all evil, not only 
in the desire for its accumulation, but by its prostitution 
to positively bad uses in its spending. There are people, 
moral and honest, who strive to accumulate in order to 
display wealthy and pompous surroundings, and who 
lavish the luxuries and splendors of fortune upon them- 
selves and their families, without regard to the needs of 
the world in which they live. Neither do they heed the 
cry of the poor, nor contribute to the enterprise or prog- 
ress of civilization, except in so far as they are them- 
selves benefited; and, in their grasping avarice, they 
often rob the poor of their toil, or wreck their fellows in 
business, in order to add to their own fortunes. Many 
a stone front, or big bank account, has grown out of 
the sweat and toil, if not the blood, of the poor and 
unfortunate, without adequate return, simply to gratify 
the pride and ambition of avarice. 

There is yet another form of money-love which is the 
root of a great evil. The prodigal is as bad as the miser 
who seeks to satisfy his greed or the plutocrat who 
gains for the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement. 
There are people who spend their money liberally upon 
themselves and their associates in pleasure and give to 
nothing else; they indulge themselves and their com- 
panions in every evil that money will buy. The saloon, 
the brothel, the gambling hell, the theater, the dance 
hall, the club, and the horse race, all get their support 
from money spent by people whose sole aim is to live for 
the flesh. The poor laborer and the tradesman often 
work hard all the week to debauch themselves on Sat- 
urday night and Sunday, robbing their wives and chil- 
dren of bread, home, and comfort. Hundreds of young 



Love of Money 427 

men toil daily for a dollar in order to dissipate at night 
and throw away their life and character upon whisky, 
harlots, and gaming tables. 

It would be impossible to enumerate all the sins of 
Mammon — lies, liquor, gambling, dishonest business 
methods, false diplomacy, unjust war, and every evil of 
avaricious and covetous indulgence. There is not an 
evil or a crime that is not traceable directly to the love 
of money. In the universal grasp for gold, man has 
transformed himself into a slavish idolater, millions wor- 
shiping at the beastly shrine of Mammon; and it is no 
wonder that Christ denominated money the "unright- 
eous mammon." With all, from the least to the great- 
est, the love of money is the most common temptation 
and the one most generally yielded to. There is scarcely 
a man who is not to some degree tainted with its touch ; 
even in our infancy and childhood, almost the first temp- 
tation is the glint of a silver coin. I have never known 
a human being to show a substantial evidence of disre- 
gard for the almighty dollar, except in the prodigal use 
of it ; and I have known but few that were not tempted to 
love and hoard it for itself. It is the world's standard 
of value for everything else, and unconsciously to most 
men it becomes the shining charm and the clinking mu- 
sic of a covetous and avaricious heart. Hence its great 
temptation to those who want it for the selfish and sinful 
purposes, so deeply imbedded in human nature; and 
hence the difficulty to even the best Christian of resisting 
the temptation to love money and hoard it for its own 
sake, or for its gratifications. Herbert characteristically 
drew the relation between money and man when he said : 

Money, thou bane of bliss, and source of woe, 

Whence com'st thou, that thou art so fresh and fine? 



428 The Masterwheel 

I know thy parentage is base and low : 

Man found thee poor and dirty in a mine. 
Surely thou didst so little contribute 

To this great kingdom, which thou hast got, 
That he was fain, when thou wert destitute, 

To dig thee out of thy dark cave and grot. 
Then, forcing thee by fire, he made thee bright : 

Nay, thou hast got the face of man ; for we 
Have with our stamp and seal transferred our right; 

Thou art the man, and man but dross to thee. 
Man calleth thee his wealth, who made thee rich ; 
And while he digs out thee falls in the ditch. 

Few things are so valuable and blessed as money hon- 
estly gained and wisely used. Personal necessity, fam- 
ily subsistence and education, business operations, gov- 
ernmental machinery, religious development, all de- 
pend upon the use of money. Every man ought to make 
and save money for its legitimate uses; and the man 
who has no aspiration or ability for the accumulation 
of means will be the victim of poverty or misfortune, 
and be left upon the charities of the world. The great 
thing to be guarded is that, while we should love to 
make money for its proper use, we should beware of 
loving it for itself. As some one has well said, "Money 
is a good servant, but a dangerous master;" and as 
another has said, "A wise man should have money in 
his head, but not in his heart." 

Put not your trust in money, but put your money in 
trust. Make all you can honestly, save all you can con- 
sistently, and give all you can liberally. Give out in 
some way to man what God gives to you; and ever re- 
member the wise words of Bacon : "Money is like manure, 
of very little use except it be spread." Men are never 
more innocently employed than when making money 



Love of Money 429 

honestly, and never more nobly engaged than when us- 
ing it to help men and glorify God. 

The meanest and most contemptible sins which spring 
from the love of money are avarice and illiberality. In 
the midst of vast national prosperity, they dry up all 
benevolence and progress. For a patriotic citizen or 
a professed Christian to harden his heart and close his 
pocketbook against contributions to education, charity, 
and religion is not only to seal up the fountains of his 
own benevolence, but to suppress the development of the 
very elements which make business and life a success. 
To rob God is the direst form of thievery, and most dis- 
astrous to the robber. 

No community or nation prospers beyond the benev- 
olence of its people ; and while a stingy man may prosper 
and flourish for a day, the line of his wealth runs out 
with his generation. Dirty dollars seldom keep their 
inheritance in the family line; and if they canker in the 
father's hand, the son generally throws them away. 
Thus we see the love of money is the root of the stingy 
evil ; but this evil seldom has any succession in the wealth 
of family or national inheritance. 

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and there 
is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to 
poverty," is the declaration of Holy Writ. And again : 
"The liberal soul shall be made fat." Beautifully does 
Christ say: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." 



LOVE OF HUMBUGGERY 




HE picture before us, showing a gaping 
crowd surrounding a street fakir, is perhaps 
the best concrete illustration of our subject, 
and one familiar to all who visit the county 
towns on court day. You have often seen this old 
humbug selling patent medicines, cheap-john jewelry, 
razors, pocket knives, shaving soap, and other articles, 
and have perhaps bought some of his wares, which you 
afterwards found to be worthless. Upon closer exam- 
ination you will see the picture also symbolizes the moral 
and intellectual humbug. He is dealing in "isms" and 
"osophies," but, as always, he is working for the dimes 
and dollars. It is his delight to administer to the viti- 
ated appetites of the gathered crowd the Devil's sugar- 
coated pills or fads, fancies, and false doctrines. Back 
of him, on the stand but out of sight of the crowd, is 
seated his Satanic Majesty, smiling complacently and 
rejoicing at the success of his partner in business. 

It has often been said that people love to be, and 
therefore ought to be, humbugged; and what goes as a 
current saying is generally a true observation. It may 
appear a singular fact in the peculiarities of human na- 
ture, but there is a reason for it, found in the ignorance 
and weakness of many who would rather believe an 
absurdity than a fact, or who are more fascinated with 



Love of Humbuggery 433 

an illusion than a reality. It is said that "truth is 
stranger than fiction;" but the proposition is true only 
to the profound searcher and lover of truth, who abhors 
delusion, falsehood, and error. 

One of the fertile sources of humbuggery is vanity, 
that loves flattery. It began with Eve, whom the Devil 
humbugged in the garden of Eden. Perhaps through 
the flattery of her vanity there was engendered a desire 
to be as wise as God; for I have always believed that the 
tempter paid some high compliment to Eve, either com- 
mending her personal beauty or her intellectual excel- 
lence. Thousands since, like Eve, have fallen victims to 
their vanity and have succumbed to the deceitful praise 
of less accomplished flatterers. So many people love 
to be flattered, no matter what the cost. An old negro 
was asked why he always traded with the Jews, when he 
knew they cheated him. "Yes, boss," he said, "I know 
dey cheats me, but dey always pats me on de back!" 
What vast amounts of money are coined by patting on 
the back — a species of business humbuggery which costs 
the humbug nothing, but always goes to the bottom dol- 
lar of not only negro vanity, but the vanity of many- 
white folks, which, while it is conscious of being fooled, 
cannot resist the luxury of being flattered. Maken- 
zie has well said under this head: "Mankind in the 
gross is a gaping monster that loves to be deceived, and 
has seldom been disappointed," 

Next to vanity our curiosity is the most frequent 
cause of our being humbugged. The love of what is 
called the "show" catches the crowd like sugar catches 
flies. The circus is always bigger on the billboards 
than it is on the inside of the tent, and for weeks before 
it comes, far and wide, the marvelous promises of the 
advertisements have been eagerly swallowed. On the 
28 



434 The Masterwheel 

day of the show the people are all there to see the same 
old thing they have seen before, and hear the same old 
jokes they have always heard. Those huge, fierce ani- 
mals are never there; and that anaconda that looked a 
hundred feet long in the picture turns out to be only 
about nine feet in length. Yet every new advertise- 
ment, displayed with mammoth pictures and loud pre- 
tensions, must surely be true this time; and the same 
old lie catches the same old dollar so long as the shows 
come. Of course there are some good shows, and per- 
haps worth the price of admission ; but no matter how 
stupendous the humbuggery of shows in general, and 
how often the people have been fooled, they will con- 
tinue to patronize them, perhaps to see if the old lie 
still holds o-ood, or if for once the exhibition will come 
up to the advertised wonders. How well the showman 
understands human nature ! He comprehends the pow- 
er of external display and showy advertisement, and 
he well knows that there is a multitude ready to be 
fooled. 

Another source of humbuggery lies in the fraudulent 
methods and devices of business. People want every- 
thing cheap, no matter what the worth; and the mer- 
chants, in order to satisfy the want, arrange to meet the 
demand by adulteration or by inferior manufacture, 
but with a showy display that imitates the genuine. In 
the long run the best is the cheapest ; but the cheap-john 
craze that puts up with the show and imitation of the 
best, which will last for only a few days, forces merchan- 
dise to humbuggery. You can scarcely get a genuine 
article of anything except at an inflated cost because 
there are so few to buy the best that the article is rarely 
found for sale. Everything is manufactured and dis- 
played so as to appear the best ; and just so it tastes and 



Love of Humbuggery 435 

smells and looks like it, that is sufficient for the masses, 
unless the cheat is glaringly apparent. People will take 
the lowest bidder on a contract to build or paint a house ; 
and if it appears all right when finished, they are satis- 
fied; but a season of rain and sunshine puts them to 
cursing the builder and painter they have induced by 
their own cheap- John policy to deceive them. Too low 
wages make humbug laborers, and the demand for goods 
at too cheap prices creates humbuggery in business. 
Pinchbeck jewelry, adulterated paint, meats with the 
substance pressed out of them, watered milk, oleomar- 
garine for butter, chalked flour, flimsy but flashy dry 
goods, doctored sirups, looking like the best, are but 
specimens of the mercantile humbuggery of the day, 
induced by the demand of the people, who seem to prefer 
to be thus cheated. 

Our afflictions also induce the humbug to play with 
our maladies, to make money even out of our miseries. 
There is perhaps no wider or more lucrative field for his 
operations than in the realm of disease and medicine. 
The medical profession is one of the most honorable, 
and perhaps the strictest in professional ethics; but no 
profession is worse cursed with quackery and fraud. 
Its ethics does not allow professional advertisement, and 
one of the first evidences of the quack is a display of 
his practice, discoveries, or medicine in the papers. The 
reason for it all lies in the hopes and fears of the invalid, 
who catches at straws when all the props of health have 
been knocked from under him and the scientific physi- 
cian has surrendered his case. He then listens to the 
humbug, and tries every remedy known to the patent 
medicine business. Every quack has a remedy which 
is a sure panacea, and he has lists of certified cures by 
the pamphlet full. The humbug medicine man knows 



436 The Master wheel 

full well the weakness of human nature, and he is sure 
of his game. The invalid, in spite of despair, will try 
anything and everything that promises restoration to 
health; and the remorseless humbug will take the last 
dollar from his victim when he knows that he is perpe- 
trating a fraud at the mouth of the grave. The patent 
medicine fakir on the street, with a crowd around him, 
selling liniment, curing lameness, breaking crutches over 
his wagon wheel, and working similar wonders upon 
his deluded patients-^-all under a temporary stimulus to 
diseased organs which soon relapse into their former 
state — is a fine example of medical humbuggery, created 
and courted by the demand of diseased weakness. 

Love of the mysterious, the desire for the marvelous 
and wonderful, curiosity for the occult belief in jug- 
glery and legerdemain, is a fertile source of humbug- 
gery. In all ages necromancy, the black art of the 
witch and the wizard, has been exceedingly popular 
with the ignorant and superstitious masses; and all 
sorts of signs and omens are believed in and resorted 
to for oracular interpretation of coming events and 
promises of good or bad luck. The horseshoe hangs 
over thousands of doors, and the rabbit's foot is in thou- 
sands of pockets. The belief in spooks and ghosts is 
still held by thousands in spite of science and learning; 
and it is hard to tell whose mind is, or is not, filled with 
hoodoo superstitions. It is astonishing to know the 
number of people, especially women, who will resort to 
a humbug fortune teller to know their future; and al- 
though some of them know it is humbuggery, yet there 
is a subjective or innate superstition, born of the wish, 
that there may be something in the fortune teller's story. 
It would seem with the increase of knowledge and the 
advancement of the world's wisdom that this sort of 



Love of Humbuggery 437 

humbuggery would cease, that necromancy would die; 
and yet within the last fifty years nothing has been much 
more popular than Spiritism, which has developed along 
with it a whole train of occult wonders — mind-reading, 
slate-writing, telepathy, hypnotism, Christian Science, 
"falsely so-called," and a dozen other marvels contrary 
to nature and revelation, but which have nevertheless 
set the world agog. The Devil never played his old 
tricks so well as at the beginning of the twentieth cen- 
tury; and the fact is demonstrated that the more you 
enlighten and evangelize a people, the more the Devil 
seeks to prostitute learning and imitate religion. He 
comes as an angel of light ; and the chief point in his 
humbuggery is to put every one of his fads in the name 
of Christ, and so stab Christianity with his half-truth 
daggers. 

The histrionic or theatrical humbug also continues to 
play his part on the stage, and multitudes of people still 
run after him. The actor is a hypocrite, often playing 
the role or masquerading in the character of a man 
whom he in his own character and life wholly misrep- 
resents. Of course the actor's impersonation is a mat- 
ter of art, and often of very fine art; but the man who 
must laugh and shed tears, prod his emotions, change 
his features, vary his intonations, conform his attitudes, 
wield his gestures to imitate a saint or demon, a patriot 
or traitor, a miser or a philanthropist, must play the 
hypocrite, no matter how fine his art ; actors have usual- 
ly been of bad or indifferent character, and generally 
play for money or reputation. Occasionally religion, in 
some form, comes upon the stage for play and pay, and 
nothing is more sacrilegious or blasphemous than the 
histrionic rendition of Christianity and morals at the 
hands of unregenerate or dissolute performers. People 



438 The Masterwheel 

weep over the performance and say it is better than 
preaching ; but the effect is only emotional, and not spir- 
itual or religious. The Greek word hupocrites orig- 
inally meant one who plays a part on the stage, a dis- 
sembler, a feigner ; and the art of the professional hyp- 
ocrite could never commend itself to the purest and 
highest types of Christian intelligence. With Chris- 
tians it is generally agreed that the character and influ- 
ence of the stage have ever been on the side of evil. In 
the very nature of things the hypocritical rendition of 
life is humbuggery, and it cannot bear good fruit to the 
player or to the lover of the play. 

The worst humbug of all is the Christian humbug, 
especially the Christian preacher who plays the role 
of the hypocrite for any purpose. The holiest profes- 
sion is that of religion, the highest calling is that of 
the preacher, and any prostitution of that profession 
or calling is the worst form of humbuggery. Better be 
a stage actor mimicking for money, or a fakir selling 
patent medicine, better be a clown and play the fool, 
than be a religious hypocrite. 

One of the most terrible things in all the world is the 
Christian and the preacher or pastor living in secret sin, 
and yet posing as a saint in public, until exposure tears 
away the mask of hypocrisy. Such was Judas among 
the twelve, right under the eyes of the Master. Of him 
and all such it was written: "It had been good for that 
man that he had never been born/' 

Virtue, honesty, piety, labor, patience, have a hard 
but happy road to travel. They have no popular mask > 
to wear and no short cut to fortune or to heaven. The 
straight gate and the narrow way, while they pinch, 
leave us a good conscience and many a happy resting- 
place on the way to glory. The world does not run 



Love of Humbuggery 439 

after them nor love them as it does flattery, vanity, de- 
ceit, fraud, humbuggery, and the like down the broad 
road ; but God sees them, knows them, honors them, and 
rewards them, here and hereafter. After all the way 
of the hypocrite and the humbug is a hard one. "It is 
much easier," says Cecil, "safer and pleasanter to be the 
thing which a man aims to appear, than to keep up the 
appearance of being what he is not/' And then hum- 
buggery does not live long. Soon exposed, it is always 
despised ; and the few, brief days of its love and popular- 
ity are only spent in ultimate folly without profit or 
honor. 




LOVE OF GAMBLING 




HE love of gaming is almost universal, and to 
those afflicted with it there is nothing more 
fascinating. Children, especially boys, love 
games, and sometimes gambling begins with 
playing marbles for "keeps." There are some games 
calculated to improve the mind and develop skill of 
movement, as well as to amuse and entertain the play- 
ers, as, for example, golf, tennis, checkers, or chess; 
but most games are dependent upon chance or luck 
rather than skill, as in the case of cards or dice. The chief 
fun in every game is to take all possible advantage of 
your opponent and beat him. Often the spirit of unfair- 
ness and dishonesty or exultation over victory is the re- 
sult to the victors, while the defeated feel mortification or 
resentment and sometimes do violence in retaliation. It is 
only an easy step from skillful gaming to skillful gam- 
bling, where the spirit of unfairness or fraud finds an 
open field for development. The tendency of gaming — 
the playing of games — is to educate for gambling; and 
while many can pursue and enjoy innocent games, oth- 
ers inevitably learn to gamble who perhaps would never 
otherwise have done so. 

Now there is no difference, so far as morality is con- 
cerned, between one game and another. There is no 
more harm in a game of cards than there is in a game 
(440) 



Love of Gambling 443 

•of checkers or authors; and yet such a reputation at- 
taches to cards, and there is such a fascination about 
poker and seven-up, as to make the deck the symbol of all 
that is vicious in gaming. The card pack has been 
so associated with gambling that its very sight is ob- 
noxious and its touch suggests corruption. Dice, chips, 
and pool tables, all the favorite instruments of profes- 
sional gamblers, seem out of place about a home, and 
never speak well for a Christian family. Chessmen or 
checkerboard do not appear so bad, but the Bible on the 
same table with a card pack always seems in bad com- 
pany. Most people who play cards hide the pack when 
the minister calls. True, whist and progressive euchre 
are quite popular in fashionable society, though often 
accompanied by a species of gambling in the nature of 
prizes for the winner; but in humble circles, especially 
among religious people, the whole card-playing business 
is rightly eschewed. The educational effect is bad, as 
it popularizes the most fascinating and dangerous spe- 
cies of gaming. Somehow the card pack is especially 
odious. Significantly did the sage Franklin say: "Keep 
flax from fire, youth from gaming/' 

There is no language by which to sufficiently picture 
the horrors of gambling, and the delusive love which 
men have for it is the most unaccountable of all their 
follies. "Who gets by play proves loser in the end" is 
a fact so well known to the gambler himself that it is 
marvelous one ever follows it as a business or profes- 
sion; and yet there are thousands who have no other 
vocation, and who wildly follow this phantom of hope- 
less gain to the end of a wretched life. I know an old 
man who has been gambling for life and never won 
anything. He has borrowed money and never paid it 
back ; he has forged checks which his father had to pay 



444 The Masterwheel 

to keep him out of the penitentiary; he sold his wife's 
horse and buggy and stole and pawned her jewels; he 
sold the overcoat off his back — all for money with which 
to lose in gambling. Even when he works and makes 
some money, it all goes into the tills of the gambling 
house. Once I asked him the question: "Do you ever 
win?" He said: "Seldom; and the moment I gain, I 
lose it again." "Do you have any satisfaction," I asked, 
"in such a miserable losing business?" "No," said he. 
"Then," I asked, "why do you gamble at all?" "I do 
not know," he answered. He seems to be utterly 
wrecked in principle and honor ; and there is nothing too 
mean for him to do to get a dollar, with which to gratify 
his insatiate love for gambling. 

Of course there are men who win large sums and 
who occasionally have plenty of money; but gamblers 
as a class live a life alternating between luxury and 
pauperism; and, in the end, not one in a thousand but 
turns out pauper. I have sought diligently to find the 
gambler who died well-to-do or happy ; and only two or 
three out of thousands have I discovered who ever re- 
formed or quit the business upon a lucky haul. He who 
pursues it to the end of life is nearly certain to die de- 
spoiled of every good thing which properly belongs to 
manhood. The most successful gamblers and dishon- 
est tricksters, who know best how to fleece their own 
victims for a time, are the more certain to become the 
spoil of their own trade, which always finds a man a 
cully and leaves him a knave. There is something in 
the very nature of gambling, however successful for a 
time, or by alternation of fortune, that insures the wreck 
of its followers; and the strangest of all things is that 
from a business or pleasure view point it should have 
such a vast and deluded following. It may be they hope 



Love of Gambling 445 

that by and by luck will turn in their favor, as some- 
times it does; but to no ultimate profit, for it has 
been proved beyond controversy that not one in a thou- 
sand will stop when he is flush nor stop at all until he is 
ruined. The spirit of avarice that ever wants more will 
risk all to win more; and so the game of winning and 
losing goes on for life, with the certainty of losing all 
at the end. If not already ruined by dissipation, ad- 
vancing age enfeebles his brain, and he no longer has 
the power to prosecute his diabolical trade; except the 
drunkard or debauchee, the most melancholy wreck is 
the gray-haired old gambler, going about the streets in 
seedy clothes, begging for help perhaps at the hands of 
those who have ruined him. 

Gambling is a great sin, a crime which brings a curse 
upon its own head. "All gaming," says Whately, "since 
it implies a desire to profit at the expense of another, 
involves a breach of the tenth commandment/' It is 
covetousness to say the very best for it that can be said ; 
and, to tell the plain truth about it, it is stealing. In 
other words, it is a tacit agreement between men to bat- 
tle for each other's money in a war of wits, and each 
tries his best to get it by fair means or foul. If there 
be honor among thieves, there may be honesty among 
gamblers. Washington forcefully said of gambling : "It 
is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the 
father of mischief." It is born especially of idleness, the 
realm in which the Devil is sure to find mischief for men 
to do; and as idle men must live as well as busy ones, 
the devil invented gambling as a trap to "catch suckers, " 
who begin with a dollar and end with a mortgage. 

Nothing so much as gambling hardens and debases 
the human heart and turns men into demons of dishon- 
esty, fraud, debauchery, and murder. The most sordid 



446 The Masterwheel 

and turbulent passions contend over the gaming tables, 
where even the spectators take a part. The card pack 
or the dice awaken more interest and excite deeper emo- 
tions than the fall of an empire or the holocaust of a 
city. The slightest provocation under the rules of the 
gaming table, in the midst of heavy playing, will bring 
the gleam of a dagger or the flash of a pistol ; and many 
a life has been lost in the deadly business. Cold and 
heartless to others, yet self-destructive, is the work of the 
gambler. Some one has said : "I look upon every man 
as a suicide from the moment he takes the dicebox des- 
perately in his hand; and all that follows in his fatal 
career from that time is only sharpening the dagger be- 
fore he strikes it to his heart." Such is the desperate 
life of the gambler that he is never taken unawares; 
he always lives prepared for the worst. The most 
remorseless spirit that ever actuated a human breast is 
that of the gambler who would beggar his victim upon 
the throw of a dice or the turn of a card ; or who, when 
defeated at his own game, would take his opponent's life 
or destroy himself. 

But the ordinary gambler is not the only one who 
loves the sport or is guilty of the crime. After all, the 
card player and the dice thrower form but an isolated 
and disreputable society within itself, which does not 
affect the social and business world to any great extent. 
The poor crap-shooting negro who is so often arraigned 
before a justice of the peace, the big city gambling hells 
which are occasionally raided and written up in the 
newspapers, do not begin to hurt the material interests 
of the business world as do the extraordinary gamblers 
on 'Change, in the bucket shops, and other places where 
immense sums of money are staked on the turn of the 
market, where the necessities of life are cornered, and 



Love of Gambling 447 

where religion and public virtue are compromised by 
these respectable public pirates. Speculating upon the 
future products of industry, gambling in stocks and 
bonds, wrecking the country's great business enterprises 
1 y manipulating their securities or watering stock in 
order to create fictitious values and the like — this is 
gambling beside which the card pack and the dicebox 
cutout a small figure. These gamblers are among our 
greatest and most noted business men ; they may occupy 
high social position; they are often members of the 
Church in good and regular standing ; and their practice 
is condoned because of their liberality, their respectabil- 
ity, sustained by custom and law. But in the games of 
"bulls" and "bears" they too often suffer the penalty of 
their practices; for most professional speculators live 
and die, as other gamblers, under the curse of God, 
whose law of labor they violate. 

Finally, there is perhaps more hope for any other man 
than the gambler. Sometimes the saloonist and the 
drunkard reform. One of the most useful women I 
know was once the mistress of an assignation house, but 
now at the head of a reformatory for girls. There are 
houses of refuge for redeemed women and asylums for 
the inebriate, in which great good is being done ; but how 
seldom do we hear of a reformed gambler! The spirit 
of evil is red hot in the drunkard and libertine, and when 
cooled by remorse, conviction, repentance, and faith may 
be turned to good; but the frigid devil that lives in the 
heart of the gambler can seldom be touched with shame, 
pity, or penitence. The passion for gambling, once 
deeply set in the heart, extinguishes conscience forever ; 
and the habit, once formed, fixes an almost changeless 
destiny. 



LOVE OF DRINK 




OR this chapter there are pictured the awful ef- 
fects of the love of drink: a cheap room in 
an old house, with bare floors, broken walls, 
scant and dilapidated furniture, a despairing 
wife trying to comfort her starving child — a home 
wrecked by the demon of intemperance. Around the 
husband clings the serpent, true symbol of the horrors 
with which the victim's drunken imagination has en- 
coiled himself. Through the window can be seen the 
elegant home of the liquor manufacturer or wholesaler, 
who is at the head of the damnable traffic. From the 
profits of his trade, he has built a palatial house; but 
upon closer examination you will see that its foundations 
are laid with human skulls, the true emblem of his busi- 
ness and the only coat of arms to which the maker or 
seller of whisky is entitled. Every red brick of that 
splendid residence was soaked in the blood and molded 
in the miseries of those of his fellow-men whose lives 
have been destroyed by his nefarious business. 

In 1897 a g r ^at national exposition was held in Nash- 
ville. It was a beautiful and magnificent exhibit of the 
industrial and other enterprises of the country. A 
shrewd, far-sighted brewer took advantage of this ex- 
position to make an extensive and attractive outlay of 
money and material for the purpose of advertising and 
'(448) 



Love of Drink 451 

selling his beer. Accompanied with daily musical and 
theatrical performances, vast crowds of people flocked 
to his tables and drank his liquor — among them thou- 
sands of women, young ladies, and girls, accompanied 
by their gentlemen friends or relatives. When the ex- 
position was over, this brewer was asked if it had paid 
him for his expenditure. His reply was that it had 
not directly and immediately. 

Recently one of the officers of the Ohio State Liquor 
League, in an address before that body, after reciting 
some statistics, said: "It will appear from these facts, 
gentlemen, that the success of our business is dependent 
largely upon the creation of an appetite for drink. Men 
who drink liquors, like others, will die; and if there is 
no new appetite created, our counters will be empty, as 
well as our money drawers. Our children will go hun- 
gry, or we must change our business to something more 
remunerative. The open field for the creation of this 
appetite is among boys. After men are grown, and 
their habits are formed, they rarely change in this re- 
gard. It will be needful, therefore, that missionary work 
be done among the boys ; and I will suggest, gentlemen, 
that nickels expended in treats to the boys now will re- 
turn in dollars to your tills after the appetites have been 
formed. Above all things, create appetite." 

That officer of the Ohio League and that Nashville 
brewer represent the spirit and purpose of the liquor 
business, and no scheme in order to the success of their 
nefarious business is too diabolical for them to practice. 
"Train the boys to drink whisky and the girls to drink 
beer, or else we must go out of business ; and every ex- 
penditure of money or means to that end will prove 
remunerative to us and make prosperous our business 
in future! The old drinkers and drunkards will die — 



452 The Masterwheel 

you must make young ones as fast as the old ones per- 
ish." This is the damnable theory of the liquor dealers. 
I leave this introductory remark and statement of 
facts to the consideration of Christians, moralists, citi- 
zens, and all lovers of virtue and sobriety. If comment 
.were necessary, the stupendous statistics of the nation's 
drink bill, the vices and crimes, the pauperism and mis- 
ery, the insanity and distress, which the drink habit 
causes, speak adequately upon the text which I have 
cited. The gibbet, the penitentiary, the jail, the cala- 
boose, the recorder's and criminal courts, the poorhouse 
and the insane asylum — all tell the story which expounds 
the wisdom of the devilish doctrine of missionary (?) 
efforts to create an appetite for beer and whisky among 
the young. The army of drunkards a million strong, 
skeletons of poverty and devils of vice, with an accom- 
paniment of howls and shrieks and revelries, floating the 
banners of debauchery and blood, marching every year 
to a new-made grave, and dropping into hell — this is 
another fitting comment upon the love of drink and the 
business of the drunkard- maker. It is thus that a poet 
writes his comment: 

My native land ! 'mid thy cabin homes, 
And 'mid thy palaces, a demon roams ; 
Frenzied with rage, yet subtle in his wrath, 
He crushes thousands in his fiery path ; 
Stalks through our cities unabashed, and throws 
Into the cup of sorrow bitter woes ; 
Gives to pangs of grief an added smart, 
With keenest anguish wrings the breaking heart ; 
Drags the proud spirit from its envied height, 
And breathes on fondest hopes a killing blight ; 
Heralds the shroud, the coffin, and the pall, 
And the graves thicken where his footsteps fall. 

There is nothing so fascinating and delusive as the 



Love of Drink 453 

love of drink. To thousands nothing is more palatable 
than the taste of wine or stronger drink, especially when 
prepared with accompaniments which add relish to liq- 
uor. Some who do not like the taste of liquor delight 
in the effect, and there are thousands who like both the 
taste and the effect. Many who liked neither to begin 
with now like both by cultivation. Drunkenness begins 
in relishing the effects gently and by degrees, until the 
malady is on and finally becomes a habit and then a dis- 
ease, as inveterate as consumption or cancer. People 
with vital temperaments, deeply emotional and most 
brilliantly endowed with intellect, are usually more ready 
victims of the liquor habit ; and when once subordinated 
under the strong hand of intemperance, they are the 
hardest to redeem. Such people, especially when given 
to great elation or depression, naturally take to liquor, 
either to intensify their gratification or to relieve their 
gloom. Under the fascinating effect or stimulus of al- 
cohol, the man of highly wrought temperament glides 
into a state of hallucination as to his importance, or a 
delightful depreciation of his misfortunes, his sins, or his 
miseries. In the first stages of intoxication he is not 
bereft of memory or intelligence; but his judgment is 
illusive and overstrained, while his will is drawn into 
unwise, if not desperate, subordination to some unnat- 
ural fancy or purpose. In the deeper stages of intoxica- 
tion the mind is overthrown by the most reckless imag- 
inations, the passions become wild and ungovernable, 
and the will is in complete abeyance and helpless. Things 
that looked profoundly wise or highly desirable in any 
stage of intoxication become silly or disgusting to the 
victim himself when he grows sober; and usually he 
finds that in the fascination and hallucination of drink 
everything he has felt, said, or done was a matter for 



454 The Masterwheel 

prof oundest shame and regret. Though poor, the drunk 
man feels rich; though a fool, he feels wise; though 
weak, he feels strong; though vicious, he feels good; 
though violent and frenzied, he is unconscious of im- 
prudence or indiscretion ; and when he comes to himself, 
he wonders at his poverty, his folly, his weakness, his 
meanness, and his rashness. 

No man is more penitent and ready to promise re- 
form than the drunkard upon his recovery from a spell 
of intoxication; but his elation or depression, or his 
irresistible thirst, brings him suddenly or gradually back, 
within the grasp of his demon and the dominance of his 
evil spirit. His protestations of repentance and shame 
may be profuse, but he soon forgets the evils of his de- 
bauch and his promises of reform. His good resolutions 
are wrecked on the rock of f orgetf ulness ; he ventures 
trial of his power to drink in moderation. High and 
lofty purpose, the hopes of better life, the ties of home 
and kindred, gradually diminish in their hold upon the 
drunkard as he passes out from under the consciousness 
of his shame and gradually yields to the glowing flattery 
of his temptation; and often from fancied safety he is 
suddenly swept into the vortex of his habit by impulse, 
association, or suggestion. He has learned to love 
drink, and the more he indulges it the more he loves it, 
until his appetite becomes insatiable and incurable. 

No man ever expected, surely none ever purposed, to 
become a drunkard. All men, even drunkards them- 
selves, abhor drunkenness. The man who loves drink 
now began the habit with no idea that it would terminate 
fatally ; but with a drinking man, the first drink leads to 
the second, the second to the third, and so on till he is 
drunk. Even the man who has recovered from a de- 
bauch, and is filled with shame and grief, and has sol- 



Love of Drink 455 

emnly resolved to abstain in future, soon begins to flatter 
himself that he can touch again and not be hurt, especial- 
ly after he has mastered his habit for a considerable 
while ; and ere long resolution is forgotten, every vow is 
broken, and the poor victim is in the gutter again. 

Total abstinence is the only remedy for drunkenness 
in an age and country like this. But little can be done 
for the nation's drunkards of to-day, or of any day, so 
long as the saloon is open and people who are able to 
drink temperately refuse to abstain for the sake of their 
unfortunate and weaker brothers. The truest and best 
Christian or philanthropist is he who for love's sake will 
abstain from eating flesh or drinking wine, if either 
makes his brother to stumble. The saloons could not 
live but for the respectable, moderate drinkers who could 
easily do without liquor; and a practice, for the sake of 
personal liberty or pleasure, which supports a bad busi- 
ness and sets an evil example to the weak is an abuse of 
liberty which God condemns and commands us to fore- 
go. Besides this responsibility of total abstinence for 
the sake of others, the Christian is accountable also for 
the existence of the liquor business, if by his vote he 
sanctions it. Since we cannot keep the drunkard out of 
the saloon, it is our duty to force the closing of its doors 
by abstinence, education, and legislation. 



LICENTIOUS LOVE 




FTEN when two young people are together 
the Devil kindles the fire which warms both 
their hearts. Among the fagots are the pop- 
ular pastimes — buggy-riding, roller-skating, 
dancing, and the like. Disobedience to parents and 
novel-reading keep the fire burning ready to flame up at 
the least provocation. Love, like every other faculty 
of humanity, may be misdirected, perverted, and pol- 
luted. Men love to lie, to steal, or to lust just as they 
love truth, honesty, or virtue; thus there is no good di- 
rection which love may take, but that there is an oppo- 
site direction which it also may take. We often hug 
sin to our breast as something dearly beloved, and one 
of its fearful effects is that while it hurts it delights us. 
The drunkard loves the whisky that wallows him in 
the gutter and ruins his life and character ; hence one of 
the evidences of the damnation of sin is the love of it. 
Herein lies the "deceitfulness of sin," which blinds and 
deludes us because we love it, and it is by reason of this 
love that the human heart is deceitful above all things 
and desperately wicked, and none, not even its owner, 
can know it. Nothing so blinds us as the thing we 
love, especially the bad thing we love. 

Licentious love is that which delights in the indul- 
gence of inordinate freedom. True happiness and 
(456) 



Licentious Love 459 

pleasure are within the bounds of legitimacy and re- 
straint, but thousands throw the reins loose upon the 
necks of their passions and appetites, which, like wild 
horses, dash with their driver on the down grade to de- 
struction. Licentiousness is anarchy of the soul as well 
as of the body. Men who seem to feel the necessity of 
governing each other, or of regulating themselves in 
business, or of controlling their children, often have no 
creed and no code for their own hearts. Scientific and 
philosophic in the ordinary affairs of life, they have no 
system or rule for the government of their passions. 
Sometimes with great intellectual abilities, and graced 
with the profoundest education, they live the life of the 
drunkard and the debauchee. Judgment and will unite 
to teach and enforce righteousness and truth in men 
and women, and what judgment and will fail to do often 
is achieved by the sting of conscience, yet there are 
those who yield at every call of temptation. The his- 
tory of the world is strewn with wrecked giants, as well 
as pygmies, whose flesh dominated the soul in spite of 
every uplifting force of education, religion, opinion, 
law, and order. Statesmen, lawyers, physicians, poets, 
artists, scientists, and sometimes even religionists, as 
well as "the common herd," fall victims to licentiousness 
more beastly than that of the brute. Often we stand 
amazed and horrified at the secrets of human weakness, 
long-concealed, that break out with the ruin of some 
magnificent man or woman whose reputation and char- 
acter never before have been suspected. Such things 
come as a lightning-bolt from a clear sky, and, while the 
moralist and the churchman mourn, the openly licen- 
tious and wicked mock. 

There is a large class of vicious persons whose busi- 
ness it is to drag down angels instead of lifting men 



460 The Masterwheel 

to God. In this and every country secret vice not only 
reigns, but license or toleration is afforded by public 
opinion and law to every institution that plies the trade 
of death. Under the specious theory of "necessary 
evils" permitted or regulated by law, our civilization tol- 
erates what it claims it cannot prevent; and hence on 
every side, and up and down every street, the snares of 
death behind closed doors are set for the ruin of the 
young as well as the older and more wary. In these 
schools of vice thousands are trained devils, whose only 
desire and vocation is the ruin of their fellows ; every 
day and night there are hundreds and thousands enter- 
ing into these dens of iniquity to gratify base appetites. 
Many of the loose customs and fashions of society be- 
come the feeders to the vicious resorts which every- 
where tempt the young. The unguarded parlor, the 
pernicious novel, the immoral play, the equally immoral 
dance, the exposure of fashionable dress, loose associa- 
tion, indiscriminate company, lead to the ruin of the 
young and the building up of places and customs for 
the promotion of licentiousness. But the saloon and 
the brothel are not the worst places on earth, except as 
receptacles for the most depraved and degraded follow- 
ers of vice and crime, and the haunts of debauchees al- 
ready ruined and ordinarily beyond reclamation. The 
house of assignation and other places of concealment, 
where vice reigns and where it is, perhaps, more dan- 
gerous, are agents more destructive of once-virtuous 
womanhood by unscrupulous and designing men. The 
assignation house is hell's most prolific feeder. 

Never was the foundation of the American social 
fabric more seriously threatened by lust than now. If 
it is possible to expose its hideousness and its horror, 
and to show how awful is its menace to the virtue and 



Licentious Love 461 

purity of our young and rising generation, the attempt 
should be made at once by those who fear God and love 
humanity. Doubtless there are many too-modest per- 
son:, who will feel themselves blush when they read this 
chapter, but no such prudishness should be permitted 
to distract the mind or the attention from the serious 
nature of the problem confronting us, and a free and 
proper discussion of it. American manners, morals, 
and indeed American life are menaced in the most dan- 
gerous degree by the evil of lust. We have no right 
to dodge the issue, much less to ignore completely the 
existence of it. A condition, not a theory, faces us, 
and, as men and women and Christians, we, because of 
false modesty, must not shut our eyes to the peril or 
seal our lips against uttering a plain-spoken denuncia- 
tion of it. We fight fire with fire and we dig with a 
spade and not with a clam-shell. Thus we must not 
fear to voice in honest, blunt, and straightforward Eng- 
lish our warning against this the most insidious and 
soul-wrecking phase of the Devil and his works. Drunk- 
enness, lying, theft, and other vices and crimes have 
had their share in the ruin and corruption of thousands, 
but lust has been the master-sin of every age and the 
destroyer of more people than ever will appear to the 
eye of the world. Bickersteth makes his Baalim, the 
god of lust, tell the awful truth when he says : 

I, Baalim, 
Have bound more captives to our prince's car 
Than thou hast held in fortresses of power, 
Or thou, Apollyon, slain on fields of blood. 

The lecherous viper who stings his once-innocent vic- 
tim, loves ; yes, he is madly, wildly, passionately in love ! 
He bows the knee in adoration before his lovely queen ! 
He heaps upon her the highest encomiums for her beau- 



462 The Masterwheel 

ty, virtue, and womanhood ! She is the angel of all his 
hopes and destinies! He promises everything of man- 
hood and honor to win her confidence and ensnare her 
weakness! He begs her kisses and embraces that he 
may the more effectually affect her wavering heart, her 
bewildered mind, and her yielding will through the touch 
and thrill of fleshly magnetism ! She believes, confides, 
reels, staggers, and falls into the vortex of voluptuous 
passion, wrought up by infatuation, blind to every im- 
pulse of duty and oblivious to every hope of virtue! 
The hypnotizing serpent at last makes prey of his vic- 
tim. The work of ruin is done, and licentious love, 
after a season of gratification, gradually dies within the 
debaucher ! The victim may love, weep, and recall the 
promises made, but the serpent slowly crawls away 
gloated and disgusted with the surfeit of his prey, and 
seeks another victim when the surfeit is over. He 
leaves behind as his deadly trail the wrecked, ruined 
life, and perhaps the evidence of his guilt in the father- 
hood of his own flesh and blood to bear the shame of 
illegitimacy and disgrace. Yet nothing but the shot- 
gun can make him redeem his vows — and even then it 
is often only for a day and with loathsome hate for the 
victim of his own evil work. Not infrequently he fills 
an untimely grave at the hands of an avenging father 
or brother, and goes to hell, the fires of which are only 
kindled the hotter by the doom of that burning lust 
which consumes the soul here and damns it forever in 
the great hereafter. The most damnable of all sins is 
the seduction and ruin of virtue and innocence by prom- 
ises as lavish and false as the false love that makes them. 
It is worse than lying, thievery, and murder all put to- 
gether, and there -is no place in Satan's domain too hot 
for its everlasting punishment. 



Licentious Love 465 

Milton well understood his subject when he said: 

Capricious, wanton, bold, and brutal lust 

Is meanly selfish ; when resisted, cruel ; 

And like the blast of pestilential winds, 

Taints the sweet bloom of nature's fairest forms. 

Shakespeare graphically describes this fiendish pas- 
sion, in Sonnet cxxix., as follows : 

TrT expense of spirit in a waste of shame 

Is lust in action ; and, till action, lust 
Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full of blame, 

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust; 
Enjoy'd no sooner but despised straight ; 

Past reason hunted and no sooner had, 
Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait, 

On purpose laid to make the taker mad: 
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so ; 

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme : 
A bliss in proof — and prov'd, a very woe ; 

Before, a joy propos'd ; behind, a dream ; 
All this the world well knows, yet none knows well 
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell. 

There is no vice so deadening to every virtue and 
principle of our nature as lust. The Bible says of the 
sinner, "Alive and yet dead," but the deadest human 
being that walks the earth is the settled and confirmed 
adulterer. A man guilty of almost any other sin can 
have some sympathy with good, but the man who is 
merciless toward virtue is the enemy of every good thing 
1 in the universe. There is something so gross and bru- 
tal in lust that its debauched lover, however refined by 
culture or nobly circumstanced by material or social 
environment, has neither a delicate sense of moral beau- 
ty nor a single mark of taste for anything morally good. 
He hates the very thought of a pure, virtuous woman, 
whose company makes him restless and miserable. 
30 



466 The Masterwheel 

The only female company he enjoys is such as gives him 
some hope of indulgence in the direction of his lasciv- 
ious and salacious tendencies. A virtuous man, if he 
thought or admitted there was one in the world, would 
only excite his contempt, and he scarcely believes there 
is a pure woman on earth. All his thoughts are pol- 
luted with his vice until everything pure takes the color 
of his wanton vision, and his beastly character is so 
well marked in his countenance and in the glance of his 
baleful eyes, that every one can plumb the depths of a 
soul that gives forth only the foul emanations of a de- 
praved and besotted nature. 

In all times legislation and moralization against this 
great sin have seemed in vain. The law of God is, 
"Thou shalt not commit adultery/' and Christ has so in- 
terpreted the law that if a man looketh upon a woman to 
lust after her, he is guilty of adultery in his heart, and is 
just as amenable to the law of God as if he had commit- 
ted the open act. In olden times the guilty woman was 
stoned or otherwise punished for her sin, as well as the 
man, in order, perhaps, to maintain womanly character 
as the safeguard of society, but in modern times the law, 
however seldom executed, falls heaviest upon the man, 
especially in all cases of seduction, or in the violation 
of the sanctity of another man's home. This is right, 
for man is almost the invariable source of moral defec- 
tion in woman. She is the "weaker vessel," and almost 
universally passive, until the casket of virtue is broken 
by the lustful devil who misleads purity and innocence. 
The difficulty in the way of protecting virtue and of 
punishing lust rests in the fact that lust always has 
reigned in high and mighty places, and, while it is bare- 
ly possible to get sufficient legislation, it is seldom pos- 
sible to administer justice. The woman is chiefly stoned 



Licentious Love 467 

by public sentiment, but we should stone the man also, 
as the Mosaic economy literally required, for God made 
no difference, as we make. If there is a crime under 
heaven that deserves the penalty of death, it is that of 
seducing virtue under the promise of marriage. A 
baser or a more infinite villain does not walk this earth 
than the man who does this thing. His crime, as al- 
ready said, is worse than murder. He practically kills 
a soul, as well as blights a character for life ; and if kill- 
ing the body requires death, why not fix the death-pen- 
alty for a crime that is worse? 

No being of earth can descend so low as a fallen 
woman. She is next to a fallen angel. Female virtue 
is the most valuable and sacred treasure ever intrusted 
to a mortal being. Its preservation is the solemn and 
awful duty of woman, of man, of society, and govern- 
ment, and the high estimation put upon it is the golden 
standard of its worth to the human race and to its per- 
petuation in purity and honor. To fall from this lofty 
height is to fall so low as to bring down the blight and 
the curse of a penalty corresponding to the estimate of 
public opinion, and the fallen woman, left to the con- 
sciousness of her ruin, plunges into every excess of 
vice to destroy as far as possible the race she learns to 
hate. The deeper she feels her disgrace, the deeper she 
sinks into iniquity, until, making a trade of her shame, 
she seeks to engulf every one else in the whirlpool of 
her infamy. She hates her own sex, while the sex that 
ruined her for the love and gratification of lust she 
seeks to allure for the only profit that can in any sense 
compensate her misery and disgrace. She should be 
pitied more than despised. Ninety-nine times out of a 
hundred she was the victim of a lover — a lover who 
only loved her for her ruin, and whose love was only 



468 The MasterwheeJ 

the base infatuation of his own lusts that feasted upon 
fresh and unsuspecting innocence, now turned into the 
fury and tempest of a soul devoted to destruction. Of 
all people on earth, fallen women are most to be pitied 
and helped. One of the signs of true Christianity and 
civilization to-day is the charity of thousands of good 
men and women who are, by various methods and insti- 
tutions, opening the doors of hope to these most unfor- 
tunate wrecks of sin. 

Among the hideous vices and crimes that exclude all 
inheritance from the kingdom of heaven, adultery is 
specially mentioned, while among the most fearful of 
God's warnings to lost sinners is that which spares not 
this sin and cries aloud against it. It is the hardest of 
all vices to beat down, and it is the most powerful temp- 
tation even to the Christian. Often I have seen the 
sinner under the deepest conviction for sin, and yet he 
could not reach up and take the proffered hand of God, 
because his feet were chained and held down by the 
hand of lust. Some fair but ruined victim was clutch- 
ing at his immortal soul and pulling him into hell, and, 
while he wept, he could not repent and turn from his 
vice. So David and Solomon and Samson fell, and 
they had been ruined save for the chastening hand of 
God, and for that mercy which, after punishment, 
dragged them out of the mire and the clay of the hor- 
rible pit into which they had fallen. The strongest, 
best, and wisest of men, loving their lust, have become 
the victims of this sin. Few once engulfed have es- 
caped, but millions have been lost. Most of the kings 
and princes of earth have gone to the grave with this 
special sin upon them, and wealth and luxury often have 
denied themselves with the stain of its everlasting curse. 

And that it is an everlasting curse I cannot say too 



Licentious Love 469 

strongly. Not only do its consequences affect the sin- 
ners themselves with shame, disgrace, untold misery, 
and often death, but they affect generations to come 
in one way or another. Often the great-great-grand- 
son of a father or mother who has sinned has had 
cause bitterly to regret that they had ever been born 
simply because of that far-off offense. No man can 
measure the deadly nature of this most horrible sin, and 
no man can tell where the lightning of its effects will 
strike. But it is certain that our social structure is 
menaced by it now as it never was before, and it be- 
hooves us as Christians to strike at the peril of it just 
as we would a rattlesnake or an adder that might coil 
itself in our path ready to sink its death-dealing fangs 
into us. 



LOVE OF SCANDAL 




OR this chapter we have as an illustration 
the evils of loving scandal. Standing at a 
table — and typifying innocence — is a young 
woman; behind her is a venomous creature 
— half human being and half devil — who is piercing 
her with the barbed tongue of slander and holding 
ready to complete the work the whip and dagger of 
moral assassination. She is one of a type to be seen 
in every community — a curse to themselves and to their 
neighbors. Her boon companions are seen in the back- 
ground, taking delight in her devilish work. One of 
them is Mrs. Sorehead, whose cranium is bandaged with 
a cloth. She is an enemy of all that is good in the world 
because she is despised and shunned. Her cronies are 
twin sisters — the Misses Envy and Jealousy, who, be- 
cause of their own shortcomings, despise the beautiful 
and good in life. Back of all is the popular society 
devil who inspires every effort to hurt the reputation 
of good and well-doing people. 

There is a lust in man no charm can tame 
Of loudly publishing his neighbor's shame ; 
On eagle's wings immortal scandals fly, 
While virtuous actions are but born and die. 

Thus sang a woman poet and the burden of her song, 
alas ! is only too true. One of the evidences of total de- 
(470) 




Love of Scandal. 



Love of Scandal 473 

pravity, inherent and universal, is this lust for scandal. 
Thousands roll it as a sweet morsel under their tongues, 
and dispense it as the poison of asps from beneath their 
lips. It seems that there are comparatively few people 
in the world who do not love either to hear or tell some- 
thing bad about their neighbors, while there are many 
who make it their business and pleasure to spread 
abroad whatever defames character or hurts reputation. 
The scandal-monger is little concerned, as a rule, as to 
who or how he hits and hurts and such is the avidity of 
his passion for the vile pleasure that even kindred and 
friends cannot escape the sting of his scorpion tongue. 
Sometimes husband and wife talk about each other ; oc- 
casionally, parents and children scandalize one another. 
Few indeed there are who, if they cannot find something 
good to say of others, say nothing; and it would seem 
that the mass of mankind, even when they do not talk 
themselves, are glad to hear something bad of their fel- 
lows. 

This fact is illustrated forcibly in the eagerness with 
which the public press seizes upon the evils of the day 
and publishes broadcast to the world the vices and mis- 
fortunes of mankind. The newspaper is too often an 
open sewer through which flows, in putrid streams, the 
foul stuff which constantly offends and pollutes society. 
The editor well knows that his paper must disappear 
from print if only the good and the wholesome are to 
fill up his columns. As a rule, the editorial pages of 
our newspapers are lifted to a higher plane of morals 
and intelligence, but often the news and advertising de- 
partments are indiscriminately vicious beyond measure. 
Sensational and salacious items catch the multitude and 
sell the paper, and as they always are highly headlined 
and boldly paraded nothing is devoured so greedily as 



474 The Masterwheel 

scandals in high or low life. The fall of a minister, the 
escapade of a woman, the ruin of a man in a high place, 
bemoaned by the good and the few, are winged with 
lightning, painted in every horrid hue, magnified with 
microscopic power and sped to the four corners of the 
earth — a fattener of the newspaper till and a feast for 
the scandal-devourer's appetite. 

It would seem that education and religion largely 
should check the spirit of scandal and develop a philo- 
sophic and charitable treatment of the faults and fail- 
ures, the vices and miseries, of those who are exposed 
to public shame and contempt. To some extent they 
do; but even in learned and religious circles the love of 
scandal is often manifest, if not rife. Too often the 
cultivated ear itches for the sound of the sensational and 
pricks up at the report of the vicious. The college hall, 
the church aisle, and even the columns of the religious 
journal, sometimes smell of the scandalous and of the 
scandal-loving sentiment, and are not free from the 
practice of magnifying and spreading the sins of one's 
fellow-beings. Some preachers are great gossipers, 
and are loaded with the secrets and faults of their breth- 
ren. Especially is this true of the envious and jealous 
little fellow who is ever ready to hit and hurt the man 
above him or in his way. 

Science and religion tend to hide a multitude of sins 
under the mantle of prudence and love, but often the 
round-table and the church, the literary and the pro- 
fessional journal, the learned and the pious home, are 
fouled by the touch of scandal and the slander-monger. 
I have seen whole churches, for a time, ruined by the" 
tongue of the gossiper. When the Devil can do nothing 
else to destroy wisdom and goodness, he stirs his emis- 
saries to pick motes out of the eyes of the saints and to 



Love of Scandal 475 

hunt flaws in the character of angels — to magnify mis- 
takes, exploit blunders and catch words to hurt the truth 
by blighting character. Christ and his apostles — Moses 
and the prophets before them — the good and the great 
ever since — have been the victims of scandal and slan- 
der. John the Baptist came neither eating nor drink- 
ing, yet they said "he hath a devil." The Son of Man 
came eating and drinking and they called him "a glutton 
and a winebibber." As the poet says: "Greatest scan- 
dal waits on greatest state." Many a good man and 
woman has been "done to death by slanderous tongues." 
Well did Shakespeare express it when he said of slan- 
der: 

Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue 
Out- venoms all the worms of Nile ! 

True it is, indeed, that the lust for scandal is one of 
the best evidences of the inherent, total, and universal 
depravity of human nature. Man is by nature a mur- 
derer. Whether brave or cowardly, he wants to destroy 
his fellow-man, and will sometimes kill himself. If he is 
brave, he slanders less and kills his fellow with his hand, 
instead of with his tongue ; if he is cowardly, he uses his 
tongue, and then his heels when confronted with his 
villainy. At all events the natural tendency of the race 
is toward destruction and the exceptions to the rule are 
found in those educated and evangelized above the plane 
of the animal in human nature. Be it said to their 
glory many rather would speak good than bad of their 
fellows, and let us imagine that Shakespeare knew to 
the contrary when he made Mark Antony say: 

The evil that men do lives after them; 
The good is oft interred with their bones. 

It is some consolation to know that mankind, in general, 



476 The Masterwheel 

is disposed to speak well of a man after he is dead, and 
that posterity often builds monuments to the prophets 
stoned by its forefathers. 

Again, it is important to know that the scandalizer, 
or slanderer, as a rule, is a bad character in himself. 
If not bad in one way, he is bad in another, and is, in- 
deed, likely to be bad in more ways than one. The vir- 
tue or honesty of no man or woman who deals in scan- 
dal can .be trusted. People who throw stones usually 
live in glass houses. The disposition to hurt character 
is a vice that has kinsfolk; thus a disposition to evil in 
one direction will take other directions when sufficiently 
tried or tempted. Many people who talk about their 
neighbors claim the right in vindication of virtue, honor, 
morals, and the like ; but the best of such people will find, 
upon close examination, that they possess an evil heart 
that loves the vice of gossiping, and that if tried in other 
directions, under the same conditions, they would be 
just as bad as those they expose and scandalize. The 
man or the woman without sin, and thus capable of 
throwing stones, seldom throws them. They generally 
love their fellow-man, and they always try to help and 
redeem rather than hinder or damn them. 

Finally, evil often is overruled for good. The scan- 
dalmonger has a mission. Although he means no good, 
he does it by forcing people so to live that absolutely no 
flaw can be found in them. Exposure may keep many 
a man and woman from ruin ; and if it were not for the 
Devil sometimes overreaching himself in the vicious 
trade of the defamer many an otherwise erring man or 
woman might be lost. Scandal makes people wary of 
exposure, and often drives them to do better on the same 
principle that cats keep down the rats by catching the 
venturesome ones. While religion and education are 



Love of Scandal 477 

cultivating the fields of sin and ignorance — extermina- 
ting the weeds and grass — the flaw-picker and the mote- 
hunter is hunting the bugs and reptiles and keeping us 
on the alert and the lookout. 

After all, however mean and low the work of the 
scandalmonger, it is good for us; and no matter how 
vile and damaging his exposures, we should never com- 
plain when we go wrong ourselves. It is the erring 
man's medicine — his bitter pill which may be terrible to 
the taste but wholesome to the stomach. We have no 
right to do wrong, nor to expect charity or immunity 
from the scourge of the tongue. We are under obliga- 
tion to do right only, and we should get no credit for 
so doing. We owe, absolutely, the debt of righteous- 
ness to God, to our fellow-man, and to ourselves ; and if 
we sin and get hurt for it by the dagger-like tongue of 
scandal or the slandermonger, then it is no matter for 
crying for us. If rightly appropriated, it will do us 
good. This is the philosophy of drastic and alterative 
medicine applied to our moral instead of our physical 
system. 



The End. 



